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Résumé

D'avoir été, dès l'enfance, imprégné des réalités de la vie dans les conditions de la domination coloniale et d’avoir accumulé beaucoup d’expériences en Afrique et dans d’autres pays du monde ont pesé dans l’entrée en écriture de Sembene.

Toutefois, si le désir d’écrire ne s’est pratiquement jamais démenti chez SEMBENE, le choc, la détermination qui l’a mis sur l’orbite de la littérature vient de la conscience aiguë qu’il avait de l’écart entre le contenu des livres écrits sur l’Afrique, aussi bien par des Européens que par des Africains, moins nombreux, il est vrai, et les réalités de l’Afrique.

La forte personnalité de l’écrivain autorise ce dernier à se choisir une voie, une méthode créatrice, le réalisme critique, alors que l’approche marxiste, nourrie des « analyses » et « approfondissements » d’épigones orthodoxes de MARX et d’ENGELS, a produit, à partir de 1934, pour le Parti Communiste de l’ancienne Union Soviétique (P.C.U.S.) et les communistes de son obédience, une méthode créatrice, normative et officielle, le réalisme socialiste.

 

 

 

Situation et détermination d’écriture

 

Le contexte dans lequel Ousmane SEMBENE est entré en écriture est marqué du sceau de la colonisation. C’est un contexte où la domination de pays africains par les colonisateurs commence par la « prise de possession politique » et combine l’action économique, l’action administrative, l’action missionnaire, l’enseignement moderne. De cette situation très particulière où la société colonisée est considéré et traitée avant tout comme « un instrument créateur de richesse (alors qu’elle ne retient qu’une médiocre part des revenus en dépit de son nombre) » (BALANDIER G. 1982, p.18), découlent des processus de transformation affectant les hommes en premier lieu.

  D’avoir été, dès l’enfance, imprégné des réalités de la vie dans ces conditions précises et d’avoir accumulé beaucoup d’expériences en Afrique et dans d’autres pays du monde ont permis à SEMBENE de prendre très tôt conscience

-       de la nécessité de gagner sa vie à la sueur de son front,

-       de ce qu’il est et de sa situation : un Africain noir sous domination coloniale, et souffrant de discrimination raciale, même dans son pays,

-       de la présentation négative de l’histoire et de l’image des Noirs,

-       de son désir, de son ambition de dire ce que la vie lui a appris du monde et des hommes,

-       de ses limites : manque de connaissance et besoin de langue de communication d’audience internationale.

 

Son retour en France en 1948, après sa démobilisation à Dakar en 1946, lui a donné l’occasion de se rapprocher des écrivains, comme il le reconnaît lui-même :

J’ai commencé à fréquenter des écrivains, car j’avais le désir d’écrire et je n’étais pas d’accord avec leurs écrits. Chaque fois qu’il passait un écrivain, ou chaque fois que la possibilité m’était donnée d’aller à Paris, je rendais visite à un écrivain africain, quelle que soit sa nationalité. Par chance ou par curiosité pour les jeunes, ils me recevaient. Et je me suis mis à écrire. Ce fut Le Docker noir (in L’Afrique Littéraire n°76, 1985, pp.20-24).

 

Toutefois si l’ambition d’écrire ne s’est pratiquement jamais démentie chez SEMBENE, il lui a fallu payer inlassablement le prix de la formation exigée par son dessein. Il a d’ailleurs toujours été conscient de ses lacunes : « c’est quand je suis entré dans l’armée [en 1942, à l’âge de 19 ans, 5 ans après son exclusion de l‘école] que j’ai mesuré l’étendue de  mon ignorance » (cité par Samba GADJIGO, in Littérature et cinéma en Afrique francophone, 1996, p. 114). C’est pourquoi il s’est forgé une ardeur inébranlable au travail.

Cependant les raisons d’écrire s’accumulant chez ce témoin de la colonisation, soldat de la seconde guerre mondiale, responsable syndical local de la C.G.T., et membre du P.C.F., quel choc, quelle détermination a mis SEMBENE sur l’orbite de la littérature ?

Voici son explication :

J’étais militant de la C.G.T. On recevait alors une formation. La section africaine avait à sa disposition beaucoup de livres écrits par des européens avec leur propre vision de l’Afrique. Il y en avait aussi quelques-uns écrits par des Africains. Mais aucun de ces écrits ne reflétait la réalité. C’est ce qui m’a révolté, moi. Jusque là, c’était le mythe du bon sauvage nègre ; nulle part on ne voyait l’image d’un africain responsable de son destin. C’est ce coup de tête qui m’a poussé à écrire. (GADJIGO, 1996, p.116).

 

Voilà, en quelques mots, comment un homme que presque rien ne semblait prédestiner à la littérature écrite est entré en écriture pour se faire une place honorable dans les lettres françaises.

 

Un écrivain engagé

 

Le « coup de tête » qui a poussé SEMBENE à écrire, la détermination d’écriture qui est la sienne, a pour corollaire une mission bien définie qu’il précise en ces termes :

Pour moi, ma mission, c’est d’être toujours fidèle à la réalité et d’essayer de pousser les hommes à réfléchir sur leurs conditions d’existence, [de] leur faire comprendre qu’il leur est possible de les améliorer à tout moment. (GADJIGO, 1996, p.117).

 

La conception d’une telle mission conforte les milieux culturels et littéraires dans leur jugement qui fait de SEMBENE un écrivain engagé. Mais que faut-il entendre par là ? Ecrivain engagé ?

Répondant, en 1993, à la question de savoir s’il était « resté encore engagé », il avait déclaré sans ambiguïté :

Pour moi, l’engagement est difficile à définir. Même en tant que communiste, je ne sais pas ce que c’est. Pour moi, toute création doit refléter la vérité et la réalité. C’est tout. (Le Soleil n°7037, 17 novembre 1993, pp. 8-10).

 

Cette position claire et ferme est celle d’un écrivain de forte personnalité, sûr de lui, qui a su toujours garder le cap malgré les vents dominants. «En tant que communiste » il fait sienne l’approche marxiste, démystificatrice et logiquement militante, selon laquelle les rapports que la création artistique entretient naturellement avec l’histoire et les interactions entre superstructure et infrastructure font que l’œuvre agit sur l’histoire tout en reflétant la réalité. Cette réalité est saisie à travers les conflits qui naissent de la lutte des classes, c’est pourquoi la fonction idéologique de l’œuvre ne fait l’objet du moindre doute.

Toutefois l’approche marxiste, nourrie des « analyses » et « approfondissements » d’épigones orthodoxes de MARX et d’ENGELS, a pris au fil du temps le risque d’être normative et officielle pour le Parti Communiste de l’ancienne Union Soviétique (P.C.U.S.) et les partis communistes de son obédience, à partir de 1934. Or la conception dominante de l’engagement en art et en littérature est celle qui s’exprime par le réalisme socialiste, théorie des tenants du courant orthodoxe, c’est sans doute la raison pour laquelle SEMBENE a dit : « il faut vraiment que nous fassions attention ».

  Comment peut-on alors comprendre l’engagement, du point de vue des créateurs intellectuels africains dont l’histoire est marquée par la colonisation qui, passé l’épreuve de la force, a généré le plus grand mal dans les populations : l’extraversion ?

L’extraversion, en effet, a fait le lit de la dépendance non seulement économique et politique, mais aussi et surtout théorique. Sur le plan de la théorisation sur les grands problèmes politiques, économiques, scientifiques, philosophiques, les productions des intellectuels du Nord, quelle que soit leur idéologie, font école chez « nous » et inhibent l’initiative théorique. A « nous » débattre entre vent d’Est et vent d’Ouest, « nous » voici pris dans le tourbillon mondialisant. Il « nous » faut donc faire montre d’une sérénité et d’une personnalité à toute épreuve, afin de choisir entre toutes choses au mieux de nos intérêts, en un mot de « nous » déterminer en fonction des problèmes que « nous » avons à résoudre.

Il s’agit ici d’éviter le suivisme, d’éviter de porter des œillères et d’appliquer mécaniquement à des réalités données des théories qui perdent leur pertinence à leur contact. Il s’agit donc, tout en s’enrichissant de l’expérience et de l’apport des autres, de récupérer l’initiative théorique.

En consultant l’œuvre romanesque de SEMBENE, on peut tenter une esquisse de l’engagement selon l’auteur, à travers un certain nombre de questions :

v  Quelles sont les tendances du monde actuel ?

v  Quels sont les signes de notre temps ?

v  Quels problèmes cachés par ces tendances et ces signes affectent la marche des peuples africains ?

v  Quels sont les atouts et les handicaps des Africains dans la résolution de ces problèmes et la construction de leur devenir ?

 

Ces questions balisent la réflexion et la recherche de solutions des créateurs artistiques :

- animer des mises en scène romanesques qui permettent de prendre conscience de la situation des peuples africains, de voir les actions et réactions des Africains face à leurs problèmes,

- faire partager l’idée que l’avenir se construit au présent, et que les actes posés, les efforts déployés, prennent ainsi un sens,

- souligner que malgré les obstacles et les difficultés, l’expérience de la vie enseigne l’optimisme, car rien n’est complètement négatif,

- et montrer l’importance de l’histoire et de la culture en faisant comprendre cet enseignement d’Aimé CESAIRE, à savoir que « la voie la plus courte vers l’avenir est toujours celle qui passe par l’approfondissement, du passé » (CESAIRE, « Culture et colonisation », in Présence Africaine, n°8-9-10, 1956, pp.197-198).

S’interroger ainsi sur la situation et le devenir de l’Afrique et des Africains, et contribuer à travers ses œuvres à en faire prendre conscience tout en prenant parti, car il n’y a ni écriture ni lecture neutres ou innocentes, c’est peut-être cela une compréhension de l’engagement, que la lecture des oeuvres littéraires et cinématographiques de SEMBENE peut autoriser.

  A défaut d’être exhaustif dans les limites de l’exposé, nous proposons ici, à titre indicatif, des éléments éclairant la mise en œuvre de l’engagement dans les écrits romanesques de SEMBENE.

 

Méthode créatrice

 

Il faut d’abord s’arrêter sur la méthode créatrice de SEMBENE, qui est le réalisme critique. L’esthéticien et docteur en philosophie soviétique Avner ZISS définit ainsi le réalisme critique :

Méthode et tendance dans l’art réaliste des XIXe et XXe siècles. Le principe essentiel du réalisme critique est le reflet véridique du réel, le dévoilement de l’injustice sociale au sein de la société de classes, la révélation des contradictions et des tares du régime social basé sur l’exploitation. La brillante représentation critique des phénomènes négatifs dans les œuvres de cette tendance a contribué au développement de la protestation sociale et à l’affirmation des idéaux démocratiques et humanistes. Cependant, le réalisme critique s’est révélé seulement capable d’élaborer une attitude critique envers la réalité, sans proposer de programme positif pour la transformation révolutionnaire des rapports sociaux (A. ZISS, 1977, p.295).

 

Le réalisme critique est historiquement antérieur au réalisme socialiste, qui est la méthode créatrice dans l’art de la société socialiste fondé sur la conception du monde marxiste-léniniste. « En tant que communiste », SEMBENE est bien au fait des principes du réalisme socialiste, mais il est resté critique et perspicace à l’égard des processus de transformations sociales dans le monde. C’est pourquoi, tenant le plus grand compte du fait que le réalisme socialiste a été conçu et théorisé dans les conditions d’une société socialiste pour être un des instruments de la construction du socialisme, et qu’il a été érigé en norme officielle, l’auteur de L’Harmattan a défini clairement sa voie. Ce qu’il dit de la conception de ses films est aussi valable pour ses œuvres  romanesques :

ce sont des films qui suscitent des débats dans le but de favoriser la marche vers le socialisme. Ceci dit, quand je vois ce qui se passe dans les pays socialistes, il y a des chances pour que je sois pas mal «emmerdé » si un tel régime devait advenir au Sénégal … Je ne ferai jamais de films dans lesquels on ne montre que des défilés du premier mai et dans lesquels on entend à tout bout de champ » vive le socialisme ». » (in Afrique Littéraire et Artistique, n°49, pp. 114-126 : condensé des conversations entre O. SEMBENE et Guy HENNEBELLE depuis 1966).

 

On comprend mieux le choix de SEMBENE et la prudence qu’il recommandait en disant que, pour lui, l’engagement était difficile à définir et qu’il fallait « vraiment que nous fassions attention ».

 

Le griot

 

Tout en se défendant de faire la théorie du roman africain, il se réclame du griot, de son statut de témoin, de son rôle d’enregistreur et de raconteur, de son enseignement : « la conception de mon travail découle de cet enseignement : rester au plus près du réel et du peuple » (L.H, 1980, Avertissement de l’auteur).

Ainsi peut-on considérer que l’œuvre littéraire de SEMBENE est l’occasion de réhabiliter le griot dans la noblesse de son statut et de son rôle, lesquels sont assumés par le narrateur – conteur qui se manifeste bruyamment dans Guelwar en particulier (« A mi-récit, je dois vous ramener en arrière, pour vous narrer ce qui s’était passé bien avant le soleil de ce funeste jour ». (p. 56) et par le personnage du journaliste – écrivain qui apparaît dans L’Harmattan et dans Le Dernier de l ‘Empire.

 

Le « discours sur la littérature »

 

Un autre indice du parti pris de l’engagement chez SEMBENE est le «discours sur la littérature » que l’auteur multiplie dans ses œuvres pour dire sa conception du bon écrivain. Dans Le Docker noir (1973, p. 149), Pipo prévient Diaw en ces termes :

 Tu aspires à devenir un écrivain ? tu n’en seras jamais un bon, tant que tu ne défendras pas une cause. […] Un écrivain doit aller de l‘avant, voir les choses dans la réalité, ne point avoir peur de ses idées ». (c’est nous qui soulignons).

 

Dans Le Dernier de l’Empire (1981, II, pp. 209-210), Djia Umrel conseille à son mari, le doyen Cheikh Tidiane SALL :

Il est temps, pour nous tous de découvrir ou de redécouvrir nos centres, nos foyers culturels. Pourquoi devons-nous nous rendre à Paris, à Moscou, à Berlin, à Londres, à Rome, à Bonn, à Washington, à Pékin, au Caire pour valoriser nos connaissances, ou y ramasser des miettes de savoir sorti des expériences des autres. Est-ce que nous n’avons pas de passé ? D’expérience. Allah n’est pas à La Mecque, pas plus que Jésus n’est à Rome ! Ton livre doit nous ancrer dans la terre africaine, (c’est nous qui soulignons)

 

Dans ces deux romans, comme dans Véhi Ciosane et L’Harmattan, le romancier définit l’engagement et la mission de l’écrivain africain.

 

Thématique

 

Le souci de « nous ancrer dans la terre africaine » et de « rester au plus près du réel et du peuple » s’exprime dans les œuvres à travers une thématique variée et, dans certaines de ses composantes, constante. La variété des thèmes n’est pas le résultat d’un désordre ni d’une ambition mal maîtrisée de tout dire, de tout montrer. Elle est liée au caractère principal des œuvres romanesques de SEMBENE qui sont des romans du regard extérieur, c’est-à-dire des romans de l’espace extérieur, tant physique que social, où le romancier - observateur suit le peuple dans sa vie quotidienne. La constance, elle, ou le retour de certains thèmes, enseigne que, dans l’évolution des sociétés, des problèmes importants qui entravent la marche des peuples n’ont pas encore trouvé de solutions justes.

 

Analyse de la réalité sociale

 

Les thèmes qui sont soulevés sont les divers aspects d’un certain nombre de problèmes de fond que l’analyse de la réalité sociale a permis à SEMBENE d’identifier. C’est ainsi que les sociétés représentées paraissent affectées par

- la domination coloniale, puis néo-coloniale

- l’arrimage au capitalisme

- l’acculturation, surtout sous l’angle de l‘école nouvelle et de la « culture coloniale ».

- enfin par les aspects négatifs de l‘usage de la religion et des traditions.

 

Signification de l’œuvre

 

L’ensemble de ces problèmes soulevés amène à s’interroger sur la signification de l‘œuvre de SEMBENE.

Le romancier s’est assigné la mission « de pousser les hommes à réfléchir sur leurs conditions d’existence, [de] leur faire comprendre qu’il leur est possible de les améliorer à tout moment ». (Le Soleil, n°7037 du 17 novembre 1993, p.8).

On est donc fondé à considérer l’œuvre du romancier – cinéaste comme une réaction à des manques, une contribution à la résolution de problèmes dont l’extraversion continue de faire le lit. C’est pourquoi elle vise

- la réhabilitation de l’histoire africaine,

- l’attachement à la culture africaine, en mettant en valeur la mode et les usages africains (toilettes, habillement, objets courants visibles dans les descriptions de femmes : Oumy NDOYE dans Xala (pp. 86-87) et Manh KOMBETI dans L’Harmattan (p. 33) entre autres exemples) d’une part, et d’autre part en représentant des personnages qui prennent au quotidien la défense des langues africaines (L.B.B.D., O.P.B.P., L.H., XL.,)

Toutefois la bataille linguistique est menée par l’écrivain à travers une procédure d’encodage de son identité culturelle et linguistique, dans les textes en français. La situation de bilinguisme qui fait du wolof une langue dominée par le français, entraîne un phénomène d’interférence linguistique affectant les œuvres romanesques de SEMBENE. Cette interférence se manifeste globalement par la « francisation du wolof (manifestation seulement orthographique) » et la « wolofisation du français (manifestation graphique, syntaxique, sémantique, mélodique) ». En serrant les écrits de plus près, on se rend compte que l’interférence linguistique s’exprime dans une forme que Alioune TINE appelle « oralité feinte », c’est-à-dire « une simulation […] une modélisation possible de l’oralité proprement dite […] une ré-écriture de l’oralité ».

Dans l’œuvre littéraire écrite l’interférence linguistique se réalise dans des procédures de transposition d’énoncés de la tradition orale et de traduction.

L’attachement à la culture africaine passe aussi par la valorisation du savoir traditionnel africain, de la médecine traditionnelle africaine, comme le docteur Tangara l’explique à la matrone Manh KOMBETI dans L’Harmattan (1980, pp. 37-39).

L’œuvre romanesque de SEMBENE vise enfin l’union des peuples, dont Les Bouts-de-bois-de-Dieu et L’Harmattan expriment la nécessité, et leur épanouissement sur les plans économique, politique et social.

 

 

Conclusion

Sans avoir épuisé tout l’intérêt de la question de l’engagement dans ses rapports avec la création romanesque sembénienne, nous avons essayé de montrer comment l’autodidacte est entré dans les lettres françaises et comment, par un encodage conscient et maîtrisé, il prend en charge ses préoccupations esthétiques, politiques, économiques, sociales et culturelles, qui sont aussi celles des peuples africains. Puissent certains préjugés liés à l’étiquette d’autodidacte et à l’extraversion tomber pour qu’une lecture et une étude véritables de SEMBENE se développent au Sénégal, surtout parmi les jeunes lettrés.

 

Bibliographie

• BALANDIER, Georges.Sociologie actuelle de l’Afrique noire, Paris, P.U.F., 1982.
• NIANG, Saada (sous la direction de). Littérature et cinéma en Afrique francophone. Ousmane SEMBENE et Assia DJEBAR, Paris,L’Harmattan, Coll. « Images Plurielles », 1996
• ROSIER, Jean – Marie. Marxisme et littérature. La critique littéraire marxiste française : 1945 – 1978 : Histoire / Théorie / Perspectives, Bruxelles, Edité par la Fondation Joseph JACQUEMOTTE, 1979.
• TINE, Alioune.Etude pragmatique et sémiotique des effets du bilinguisme dans les œuvres romanesques de Ousmane SEMBENE. Thèse de Doctorat de 3^ecycle présentée et soutenue en Mai 1981, Université Lyon II, U.E.R. des Sciences du langage.
• ZISS, Avner.Eléments d’esthétique marxiste, Moscou, Les Editions du Progrès, 1977.

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1.       Introduction

Right from the onset of every human community, interlingual communication was oral. The oral interlingual communication was and is still very important for mutual understanding among people. There was always the need for middle men who understand the various languages of communication used. From ages past, the middle man, known today as an interpreter, served as a channel in between two people of different languages.  Ukoyen  (2001:216-217) corroborates this idea when he says:

From time immemorial, there have always been individuals who have access to more than one language as a means of communication and who, therefore, could serve as channels linking together the people on either side of the language divide… it is interesting to note that the very word interpreter, meaning oral interlingual communicator goes back to the practice in antiquity whereby extra-territorial merchants always included at least one bilingual or multilingual person in their team to serve as a go-between (inter) in their business transactions with foreign merchants (pretes).

 

The spoken word does not leave a written record. It is therefore difficult to trace the exact history of interpretation. However, as early as 3000 BC the Egyptians had a hieroglyphic that signified “interpreting”. In some classical works several references to interpreters have been documented: ancient Greece and Rome or the Middle Ages. Interpretation was widely used for purposes of exchanging and spreading philosophies, ideas, and religion as well as for science, and diplomacy. 

In ancient Egypt, many schools set up by Muhammed Ali relied on foreign instructors who had to have interpreters in the classroom to communicate with their students. In the history of the ancient kingdoms of Africa, the “griot’’ or the praise singer used interpretation as an oral interlingual communication tool whenever the royal courts were in session. Likewise, the interpretation of African drum language into actual words was also done. In Turkey, interpretation was done for foreign instructors who did not speak Turkish and the same happened generally in Africa during the colonial era e.g. Le Mandat of Sembène Ousmane. This type of interpretation is still being done in interpreting letters for illiterates in most African countries. The interpretations of Frédéric II’s conversations were also of remarkable relevance. These interpretations were rendered in languages like Latin, Greek, Hebrew and Arabic while the speakers used their native languages. It was an oral-to-oral interpretation in the form of reported conversations. (Sirat 1989:176).

From Roman times to date, interpretation has undergone various developments as a tool for oral interlingual communication. Essays, articles, theses and books have been written on Interpretation and translation. Specialists in these two fields have put in place theories which include: 1) The theory of untranslability, particularly linguistic relativity or the Whorfian hypothesis  postulating that translation is not possible. 2) The theory of translatability of Greenberg, Wills, Nida, Chomsky, Mounin, Catford, Vinay and Darbelnet, Seleskovitvh, Lederer among others. For them translation and interpretation are possible and essential for humanity. According to them, translation and interpretation have always been a subject of interest not only to linguists but also to other professionals such as engineers, medical practitioners, psychologists, philosophers, literature teachers and writers, religious set-ups among others.

 

2.       Translation and Interpretation as “twins”

Nord (1997:106) suggests we could use the notion of translation (with the German pronunciation), introduced already by Otto Kade, as an umbrella term to refer to processes that are common for interpretation and translation. Paraphrasing  Chesterman and Orojo (2000) we could mark the’ shared ground’ for translation and interpretation studies where specialists in each respective field can accumulate knowledge for studying translation processes at more holistic levels.

Establishing shared ground would hopefully be beneficial for both disciplines. To further mutual understanding, a common general term may help us see the processes we share. It could also help us realize that translation and interpretation may be seen as “two varieties of the same intercultural communicative interaction based on a source text” (Nord 1997:104) – and that the meta-processes of the two activities are in their essence very similar. Thus, in theoretical discussions, referring to these processes, ‘Translation’ as a generic term, may be useful.

Also, many authors believe that translation processes have a lot in common or they are even identical. For example, Hatim and  Mason (1997:1) see translators as “trying to assist in the negotiation of meaning”. For them, translators are “seeking insights  towards the whole relationship between language activity and the social context in which it takes place”. If we see texts the way they do, as “evidence of communicative transactions taking place within a social framework”, and translation as “not restricted to a particular field”, so that it includes “film subtitling and dubbing simultaneous interpretation, cartoon translation, abstracting, summarizing etc” (1997:2), we can develop a broader view on translational phenomena and be able to understand and better cooperate with our colleagues across the discipline.

In a similar way Franz Pöchhaker points to the similarities between interpretation and translation. Pöchhaker (1995:42) conceptualizes the two activities through the notion of Skopos. He sees interpretation and translation as ‘twins’ and brings out the similarities between the two activities: both seek to achieve a communicative purpose (Skopos rule)” (ibid). Further, Pöchhaker (ibid) points out that the results can in both cases “ be defined as target-culture offer of information about a source-culture offer of information.; both kinds of target texts must conform to the standard of intra-textual coherence” and “be coherent with their respective source texts (fidelity rule).  In this study we will be using the term ‘translation’  to include both translation and interpretation at a more general level and the term ‘interpretation’  to speak about the interpretation activity more specifically.  We agree with Pöchhaker and see translation and interpretation as twins. At the same time we know that research in translation and interpretation studies does not always focus on identical issues but both of them are very relevant.

The notions of translation and interpretation are not always used interchangeably and the view of the close relationship between interpretation and translation is not shared by all scholars involved in translation and interpretation research. Therefore in cases where it is not clear which activity one bears in mind, it may be useful to indicate if one deals with translation or interpretation more specifically. Also if both interpretation and translation are considered in one book or theory, it may be useful to make it explicit. For example, Nord (1997:1) states at the beginning of her book that the notion of translating, “will always include interpreting unless stated otherwise”. Referring to interpretation or for example mentioning that Vermeer was trained as an interpreter (by K Reiss)  (ibid : 10), makes interpreters feel part of the discussion. Somewhat differently in Toury (1995), interpreting is mentioned a couple of times; at other places translation is used even if one can assume that the topic discussed concerns interpretation.  Gentile et al (1996: 39) stress that within the literature much is assumed and little said about the differences between the two skills. Likewise, emphasis is laid on the need that translation and interpretation are activities which require different skills and different aptitudes. It would then follow that research in these domains should focus on partly different phenomena. A similar view is also expressed in Pöchhaker and Shlesinger (2002:4).

Looking at Interpretation Study literature, one finds that very few authors draw on the concepts and the theories generated by  translation scholars. The notion of equivalence is a case in point. While occupying a central position in Translation Studies for decades, it rarely figures in Interpretation Studies[…] the same holds true for function-oriented  interpretation accounts of translation such as Toury’s (1980, 1995) concepts of translational norms as a driving force in Descriptive Translation Studies. With very few exceptions, neither for these lichpins of modern translation studies have been incorporated into the mainstream of interpretation research. By the same token, very few Translation Studies scholars have actively engaged in interpreting research or even mentioned interpreting in their writings.

 

The interpretative approach of translation established by the members of the Paris School of Interpreters and Translators (ESIT), whose main representatives are Danica Seleskovitch and Marianne Lederer, developed a theory based on the distinction between linguistic meaning and non-verbal sense, where non-verbal sense is defined in relation to a translating process.  Seleskovitch distinguishes between two levels of perception, that of the linguistic tool and that of sense as awareness: ‘sense is external when pre-established linguistic meaning merges with a concomitant perception of reality’ (Seleskovitch 1977:31). The interpretation process is seen not as a ‘direct conversion’ of the linguistic meaning of the Source Language but as a ‘conversion from the Source Language to sense, and then an expression of sense in the Target Language’ that is interpreted, but the intended meaning of the author.  Seleskovitch (1984:107) says: ‘’La traduction ne s’appuie pas sur la langue pour en transmettre les significations’’ ‘’ Translation does not depend on language to transmit its meanings’’. The meaning of the speaker’s sentences is to be detected and expressed by the interpreter.  The interpreter should appreciate the idea not the words. The ideas must be grasped, associated with virtual images and known facts, through the choice of words conveying the message. Each sentence must be understood as a function of the whole. Seleskovitch and Lederer (1989: 13) buttress this fact by stating that the interpreter:

Must learn to extract ideas from a mass of verbal data, understand their relative value and properly link them to each other.

 

Ukoyen (2001:5) links the success of the interpreter to the above mentioned fact of Danica Seleskovitch and Marianne Lederer by saying:

Puisque toute activité langagière comporte deux polarités, encodage-décodage, chacune à caractère dynamique, l’acte de communication interlinguale orale-écrite, que l’interprète/traducteur, opère doit impérativement tenir compte de cette double polarité s’il vise la réussite et non pas l’échec.

Since any language activity consists of two polarities, i.e. encoding and decoding, each of them being dynamic, the oral or the written interlingual communicative act of the interpreter/translator should imperatively take this double polarity into consideration if he wants to succeed and not fail.

 

The theory of sense was based on the ideas of Herbert (1952), who stressed that interpretation should not be seen as a mere linguistic transcoding –  literal translation of each segment,  but rather, as a process of comprehension and reformulation. This philosophy may, therefore, be seen as a rebellion against the linguistic-oriented translation theory. In 1968, in her doctoral dissertation, Seleskovitch developed Herbert’s idea of reformulation and suggested that it had to be preceded by a phase of deverbalization. Thus, according to Seleskovitch, interpretation is a three-phase process: (1) listening, (2) deverbalization, and (3) reproduction of sense based on understanding, knowledge and expression. In the first phase, the interpreter analyzes the meaning, i.e. the linguistic signal, of what he hears. In the second phase, he deliberately forgets this meaning and only retains the sense, ie the deverbalized message, and finally, in the third phase, he reproduces the message in his own words.

One underlying assumption of this theory which is not often noted is that, interpretation may be seen as being completely language-independent. The interpreter, who of course ideally is a complete bilingual is not supposed to have any language-specific difficulties. Danica Seleskovitch based her interpretative theory on understanding, knowledge and expression. These three factors are linked in interpretation process. Emphasis is laid on understanding the speaker and the message. The message that the interpreter receives and that he must understand in order to be able to reconstruct it in the other language is transmitted in an oral and spontaneous form which Seleskovitch (1998:11) terms ‘the spoken language’. The spoken language is an essential tool of communication. It is of paramount importance for interpretation. Before we speak we know what we are going to say, but until we open our mouths we do not know exactly how we are going to say it.

The words the interpreter chooses will depend not only on him but also on the speaker, the audience and the context in which they all find themselves. By knowing what he wants to say, the interpreter can formulate the most complex thoughts and the words are immediately at his disposal. The spoken language expands and contracts according to the background of the listener and aims to convey the message and makes it understood. Since the spoken language strives at all times to make the semantic content of the message intelligible (by using the language that the other person can understand: he speaks louder to a deaf person and gestures to a person who is too far from him), it is obvious that the interpreter must understand the meaning of the message. Immediate comprehension is the aim of the spoken language and the message it transmits will never take shape unless it is understood immediately. The message is naturally conditioned by its originator that is, the speaker who has a purpose or a subject matter and knows more about his own field. So the interpreter must understand the speaker and the purpose of his message by concentrating much more on the meaning of the speaker’s thoughts, not on the mere words.

According to Seleskovitch (1998:52-58), to understand what is going on around oneself, one depends on two types of knowledge in one’s daily life: knowledge of words and knowledge of things. Given the special circumstances under which the interpreter works, he finds these two types of knowledge of primary importance.  In order to stand a good chance of understanding what is being said, the interpreter must have some knowledge of the subject under discussion. He must have sufficient knowledge of the field being discussed to be able to analyze it intelligently.

It is impossible for the interpreter to make the necessary association of ideas if there is no prior knowledge on which to build. In order to analyze what is said and to understand it, the interpreter must raise his level of understanding to a level which, while far from equalling that of the specialist, will be distinctly higher than that of the ordinary educated person. The acquisition of this knowledge takes place both before and during the time of interpretation. Too much or too little of the required knowledge of the interpreter can sometimes be dangerous. For example, Seleskovitch’s insufficient knowledge of chemistry prevented her from grasping the rationale behind the speakers’ words in a meeting of chemists and she had to fall back on a sentence-by-sentence translation, repeating chemical formulae that were meaningless to her.

The interpreter’s knowledge is a means to an end. It covers a wide range of disciplines. The knowledge of the working languages is also very important for the interpreter and this leads him to the concept of expression. Seleskovitch (1998:75) says:

Restating a message in another language requires constant creativity; here we find ourselves moving imperceptibly from the notion of translation to that of expression. Each time the context shifts, the same word takes on a slightly different meaning which must almost invariably be rendered by a different word in the target language. Therefore, it is no longer a question of knowing the lexical equivalents of words in two different languages that can serve as automatic substitutes for one another, but of finding terms that will express ‘’the same thing’’ regardless of the words used in the original statement.

 

Expression is an important tool for the interpreter. The better the interpreter understands the speaker’s thought, the more it becomes his own thought and the more the three steps involved in interpretation, understanding, knowledge and expression become a reality. Interpreting requires an ability to express oneself clearly, and an excellent command of one’s working languages and the way they are spoken in order to be able to express oneself appropriately in all situations. There can be no doubt that this ‘theory’ was necessary at the time. Researchers and practitioners alike might have been too confident that interpreting was merely a question of linguistic transcoding. As Pöchhacker (1992:212) puts it:

Indeed Mme Seleskovitch deserves whole-hearted acknowledgement for having put her foot down against the narrow linguistic conceptions of language still prevailing in the early 1970s.

 

Furthermore, there can be no doubt as to its merits as a didactic tool when students have to rid themselves of their word fixation. However, as its critics have repeatedly pointed out, this ‘theory’ is, at best, a tentative hypothesis that has never been empirically verified. It would be extremely dangerous to confuse such a hypothesis with the theory of interpretation. It is therefore sad to note, as Moser-Mercer (1991b:13) does, that most liberal arts researchers are unlikely to realize this.

This concept of interpretation was developed in a more detailed version by Delisle based on discourse analysis and text linguistics. He views translation as a heuristic (a helpful procedure for arriving at a solution but not necessarily a proof) process of intelligent discourse analysis involving three stages. The first stage is that of comprehension; this requires decoding the source text linguistic signs with reference to the language system (i.e. determining the semantic relationships between the words and utterances of the text) and defining the conceptual content in which it is embedded. The two operations are performed simultaneously. The second stage of reformulation consists of the reverbalization of the concepts of the source utterance by means of the signifiers of another language; this is realized through reasoning, successive associations of thoughts and logical assumptions. The third stage of verification can be described as a process of back-translation which allows the translator to apply a qualitative analysis of selected solutions and equivalents. Its purpose is to confirm the accuracy of the final translation (Baker, 1986:115).

Lederer (1994) argues that interpretation represents the transfer of meaning during the shifting of a sensible manifestation of a speech to the thought of the interpreter and from there to another sensible manifestation. It has to do with the acts of speech through which the interpreter expresses the meaning of what the speaker says. She also emphasizes the meaning of the message.

Listening, analyzing and speaking constitute the kernel of the activity. This involves at least two people: the main speaker and the interpreter. Speech, thinking and hearing are the major media of communication.  Lederer (1994 :19) welcomes this idea by saying :

L’interprète a affaire à des discours, c’est-à-dire à des actes de parole par lesquels un intervenant exprime son vouloir dire.

 

The interpreter is involved in speech, i.e. he deals with the speech acts whereby the speaker expresses himself.

It is a transfer of ideas from the main speaker to the receiver, the oral expression of the mind of the speaker that manifests the maturity and the precision of his thoughts. This leads us to the following chart of communication for more light.

 

Senders =======> Message =======> Receivers

 

The chart presents two senders (the main speaker and the interpreter) and two receivers (the interpreter and the audience) but one message constituted by ideas that are supposed to be transferred to the receivers in different languages. This chart can be reconstructed in the following way for more details:

 

Main Speaker   =======>    Interpreter   =======>    End receivers

Sender 1                                Receiver 1 /Sender 2                 Audience

Root Message                      Root M/ intermediate M     Intermediate M

Original ideas/oral                 Transmitted ideas/oral Trans. ideas

expression of his mind                expression of S1’s mind

L1                                                  L1/L2                                  L2

                              Active/passive language

 

This chart shows that the art of interpretation is constituted by multiple functions which are to be accomplished by both the main speaker and the interpreter. The art of interpretation can then be defined as the expression or the application of creative, linguistic and communicative skills to achieve the transmission of a message orally.

Marianne Lederer (1994 :19) further says :

L’interprétation de conférence représente à l’état pur le  transfert de sens qui se produit lors du passage de la manifestation sensible d’un discours… à la pensée du traducteur puis de celle-ci à une autre manifestation sensible…… Expression orale de vouloir dire, le discours manifeste en même temps une maturité, une précision de la pensée non verbale au fur et à mesure que celle-ci prend forme et que l’orateur enregistre l’effet produit sur ses interlocuteurs.

Conference interpretation represents, in its original form, the transfer of meaning, which is produced during the manifestation of a speech… to the mind of the interpreter and from there to another  manifestation….. As an oral expression the speech manifests at the same time a maturity, a precision of the speaker’s mind as soon as it is formulated and its effect is registered in the speaker’s mind. (our translation)

 

Based on the above statement, the procedure of interpretation comprises the way of understanding and expression of feelings of the main speaker according to his cultural, linguistic, moral and even intellectual background. The internal form of language could be an art hidden in the deepest part of a person and it will be very difficult to remove the real mechanism of nature. Interpretation means respect of the link between these attributes (internal form and mechanism of nature) according to time and space, while expressing them in the second language. Cary agrees with us in  ‘La traduction aujourd’hui : le modèle interprétatif’ of Lederer (1994 :10 & 17) as  follows:

L’interprétation est une opération qui cherche à établir des équivalences entre des idées exprimées en des langues différentes, ces équivalences étant toujours et nécessairement fonction de la nature de ces idées, de leur destination, des rapports existants entre la culture des deux peuples, leur climat moral, intellectuel, affectif, fonction de toutes les contingences propres à l’époque et au lieu de départ et d’arrivée.

…. l’interprète se trouve en présence d’un homme qui vit, qui pense et qui parle. C’est cela qu’il est appelé à rendre.

Interpretation is an operation that seeks to establish equivalences between ideas expressed in different languages, its equivalences always reflecting the nature of those ideas, their destination, the relationships between the culture and the people, their moral climate and everything related to the period and place.

…. The interpreter finds himself in the presence of a living man who thinks and speaks. That is what he is supposed to render. (our translation)

 

Interpretation means the transfer of the total package of knowledge acquired by the interpreter and every other event surrounding the actors (the orator, listener and the interpreter himself) to a living man.  In the course of doing so, both the receiver and the interpreter overlook some words. They retain the ideas of the speaker in bulk. Lederer (1994:22) will say they conserve a ‘deverbalized memory’.

Chacun peut constater que les énoncés oraux sont évanescents. Nous retenons en gros le récit qui nous est fait, mais nous oublions la quasi-totalité des mots qui nous ont été prononcés. Le fait est patent dans l’oral : les signes du discours disparaissent avec le son de la voix qui les émet, mais l’auditeur – et l’interprète – conservent un souvenir déverbalisé, un état de conscience de l’idée ou du   fait évoqué.

En dehors de quelques personnes à la mémoire phénoménale, telle que le ‘mnémoniste’ décrit par A. R. Luria, personne ne pourrait retenir en une seule audition et  reproduire de mémoire, dans la même langue ou dans une autre, les quelques centaines de mots au minimum dont se compose une intervention de quelques minutes en réunion internationale.

 

It is obvious that oral statements are evanescent. Generally, we can retain the bulk of a story heard but forget the real words used in telling the story. The signs of the speech disappear with the voice while the interpreter and the listener conserve a deverbalized memory. Apart from some genius, described by A.R. Luria as ‘le mnémoniste’ nobody can retain hundreds of words in one instance of speech and reproduce them from the memory in the same language or in another language during an international meeting.

According to Lederer, it is difficult and rare to find interpreters who can reproduce the same words uttered by the speaker. We can get a global idea of what is said while some words can be forgotten -we only conserve the main message. This is what she calls ‘de-verbalization’. Hence, interpretation means de-verbalization of speech in the same or another language. It is the use of cognitive memory. It is the acquisition of a fleeting knowledge, which must not be confused with computer cognition where knowledge must be formalized. It is not like the verbal memory that allows us to learn a poem by heart. She also presents this theory in her studies on equivalence and correspondences, especially the matter of loss and gain in translation or interpretation, by citing Vinay and Darbelnet (1958:79) in this way:

Il faut considérer […] que le bon interprète ne traduit pas seulement des mots mais la pensée qui est derrière et que pour cela, il se reflète constamment au contexte et à la situation.

One must consider the fact that a good interpreter does not interpret only the words but the idea behind them; that is why he should constantly go back to the context and the situation.

 

The loss here can be found in the missing words while the gain is pointed out through the ideas conveyed by the word, the context and the situation in which the word is expressed. For example, during the yearly leadership training programme organized by the Glory Tabernacle Ministry, bringing together various ministers of God from Francophone countries, we have always come across some speakers who mention ethnic groups in Nigeria for illustration without further explanation. The interpreters had to highlight these words by referring to the ideas and the story behind them before the participants could understand. Apart from the missing words (in their hearing: a word which can easily disappear from their mind and memory) the participants gain more knowledge about the mentioned ethnic groups.  This theory of loss and gain favours the participants in the area of understanding, while it gives the interpreter an opportunity to bring out the general idea of the matter without struggling with the meaning of a single word that could lead him/her to serious disaster of not communicating efficiently. We say disaster because there are times when the interpreter is unable to get the exact word in the Target Language at the appropriate time, hence there is a break in the communication and this can affect the flow and understanding of the message by the receivers, and the interpreter will also miss all other words uttered by the main speaker at that moment.

In the same vein, He Ping Zhao (1990:119) writes:

La machine reconnaît successivement les mots et les phrases, alors que le sujet percevant prend en considération l’ensemble des éléments d’un discours.

The machine recognizes the words and sentences while the living person takes into consideration the totality of the various elements of the speech.

 

For studying specific interpretation processes, some independence may prove beneficial. Angelelli (2004:23) regrets that interpretation has developed too independently not leaning much on any of the established social theories, nor on translation studies. According to her, this has caused the study to stand still without evolving to use the capacity it potentially has:

By failing to incorporate related theories from fields such as Linguistics, Anthropology, Bilingualism, Feminism, Sociolinguistics, Social Psychology, Sociology, Translation Studies, prior work in interpretation has created a closed circle (ibid)

 

For a discipline, this might become detrimental. This may lead to a situation where the discipline lacks a steady base and relies rather on prescriptivism that may not always consider the changes that occur in real life. If these truisms would then be enforced through both training and rules on interaction, the vicious circle would be closed. Angelelli (ibid) holds that by so behaving interpretation study deprives itself of the possibility of developing new theories and thus also of advancing our knowledge of human communication. Importantly, Angelelli relates this phenomenon to the scarcity of research carried out on the role of the interpreter, which in her view tends mainly to be ‘anecdotal and prescriptive’ (ibid). Michael Cronin (2002: 386), on the other hand, protests against what he calls the ‘little brother’ position of interpretation studies within the framework of Translation Studies and puts the question if this is justified:

Despite its historical antiquity and geographical spread, interpretation still remains very much a minority interest in Translation Studies. And yet interpretation as an activity that goes on in courts, police stations, social welfare offices, conferences, coach tours, factory floors, journalism assignments, airports is arguably the most widespread form of translation activity in the world today and has been for tens of thousands of years. Why then this ‘minoritization’ of interpretation? In a world of Globalization, increased refugee and immigrant flows, and exponential growth in tourism, interpretation should be a leading area in cultural investigations of language contact, yet this is largely not the case.

 

This criticism is justified. The fact that intercultural communication is complicated and rewarding independently of whether it is mediated in written or oral form has not always been given due credence. That the skills entailed in either process are different definitely does not mean that in one or the other case they are lower in any sense. Cronin (2002:388), points out that the “specific psychodynamics of orality ” may entail that “the meaning of the exchange will be strikingly different from a similar exchange in the context of literacy” and people working in the oral domain continue to be substantially underestimated by specialists in the literary domain:

The fact that an oral culture may not deal in items such as geometrical figures, abstract characterisation, the reasoning processes of formal logic, comprehensive descriptions and explicitly articulated self-analysis often leads to the biased conclusion by external commentators that non-literate persons are, at best, naive, and, at worst, confused and dishonest.

 

What Cronin refers to has been regretted in Interpretation Studies long ago. Comparing for example attitudes towards literary translators and interpreters (or translation and interpretation theory), we noticed that interpreters are often considered merely as practitioners and the dimension of cultural ambassadorship is often unduly neglected. We suggest that the tendency may also be perceived in Niger Republic. Often in developed Western democracies, the differences in status can be traced to the socio-economic inequalities between the indigenous and the immigrant populations (the interpreter belonging to either community – and possibly taking sides, cf Wadenjö 1998,  Pöllabauer 2003, 2006). In the case of Niger Republic we clearly have to do with educated preachers and semi educated interpreters and audience and so, a certain minoritization of oral cultural processes as against the literary ones that automatically appear as more academic can be perceived. Cronin (2002), believes that there is considerable power and value in oral communication processes. Their values may lie somewhere else than the strictly literacy and written records focused worldview has established.  Cronin (2002:389) invites us to comprehend that “the hold of literacy on our analytical worldview means that we tend to exaggerate the importance of textual translation and ignore the far-reaching historical and political effects of interpretation encounters”. The negative consequence of this would be that in Translation Studies, which Cronin (ibid) sees as “dominated by the typographic cultures of highly literate Western elites who speak majority languages”, one might face a situation where the oral translation practices will be neglected.  In this case what is actually happening in the world today may not be reflected adequately, or in some aspects may even not be reflected at all. Cronin (ibid), warns us against moving towards a situation where “whole areas of translation practice, informed by residual orality in many different regions of the world, will either be misunderstood or simply ignored”.

 

3.       Interpretation Studies – an independent discipline?

Interpretation is inter-cultural mediation which takes place in intensive on-site communication in unpredictable constellations. It gives us insights into the processes entailed from the level of the individual up to the global one. At the same time, the capacity to pursue independent research does not have to mean isolation or confrontation. A holistic view enables us to view both processes specific to interpretation and translation processes and their interaction with global phenomena. In addition to opening new foci to translation processes and practices, the information we obtain often has a direct practical value. Today, research in interpretation has developed to yield results that can be used by various communities. For example, we can already say that research in community interpretation has had some influence on community practices in institutional communication with immigrants. Such developments indicate that the social dimension not only benefits us in learning about interpretation and cross-cultural communication processes, but it can also be rewarding for societies and people. Thus it would be only positive if we learned to appreciate the potential for studying the processes of both interpretation and translation theory and beyond that for cross-cultural communication in general.

  Cronin (2002:388-389) sees orality as an extra resource for developing the potential of interpretation study. He points to the fact that “communication oral sense-making” relates closely to anthropology and ethnography – the domains that have as yet expressed too little interest in what interpretation study potentially has to offer them. Also secondary orality opens up interesting avenues for research:

The problems of ethnographic translation scholars are the problems faced by interpreters in many parts of the world. A chief question is how to properly understand illocutionary and perlocutionry acts in interlingual exchange. Moreover, no adequate account of the role of the interpreter in many cultures can be given if the entre-deux is not also seen to include mediation (successfully and unsuccessfully) between the different mindsets of orality and literacy. […]  Secondary orality, the orality of telephone, radio, television  - as distinct from the primary orality of non-literate cultures – has expanded exponentially in our age. Therefore, interpreting as an area of translation studies that deals with the phenomenon of human speech in language transfer ought ideally to be able to make a major contribution to the understanding of the interaction between translation and secondary orality.

 

Furthermore, Cronin points to the relevance of “a conscious strategy of self-representation”,  that can also be “a covert strategy for self-preservation” (2002:392). Cronin refers to Sangren (1992:279) who has said that the “anthropological analysis of the authority of ethnography must specify the conditions of productions and reproduction in societies, especially academic institutions, not just in texts” . Cronin finds that interpretation theory should be measured against these demands. Until recently, however, most of these criteria were not taken into account. Cronin (2002:291) claims that “little critical attention had been paid to the conditions of production (and reproduction) of the theory of interpretation, including the sitting of interpretation research centres in academic institutions in the developed world”. He (ibid:389-390) talks about the geographical influence on interpretation studies that has resulted in the dominance of certain countries’ view on interpretation processes, subjects and approach.

According to Cronin (2002:391), the centres for interpreter training and interpretation research tend to be scattered around the financial monopolies and power hegemonies, which results in First World dominance and tends to neglect practices in different cultures, contexts or modes:

The professional concern of the First world thus becomes the theoretical concerns of humanity and the theoretic paradigm of interpreting is restricted to reflect the market and institutional realities of wealthier nations. The relative neglect of other forms of interpreting that are much more practiced such as community/bilateral/ dialogue interpreting […], is arguably grounded in material inequalities that universalize First World experience.

 

According to Gile (1990c:29), most of the literature on interpretation is based on speculative theorizing. One -perhaps the main - reason for this is that many interpreter-researchers are either uninterested in theory as such, or are unaware of scientific methodology. Gile’s (1988:366) point of view is that:

... most interpreters are humanities- or language faculty graduates with no scientific training and expertise, and they find less motivation in the long, somewhat arid efforts actual research implies in terms of data collection, analysis and tests of precise hypotheses than in free theorization.

 

Another reason for this deplorable state of interpretation research is that those who are trained scientific methodologists are either interested in interpretation or not. They often do their work without any contact with the interpretation community. On the one hand, the interpreter-researchers are largely ignorant of the work done by the non-interpreters-researchers and, on the other, they do not heed this work because they find it to be based on faulty ideas. Furthermore, the non-interpreter researchers, on their part, may not be interested in cooperating with practitioners who are much more interested in their work. Thus, some scientific work on interpretation may de facto have been wasted - or at least have had less impact than it deserved. One example of such criticized and non-heeded scientists who did not cooperate with practitioners would be Barik, mentioned above. A more recent example would be Dillinger (1989), who compared the comprehension of interpreters and non-interpreters. Dillinger was criticized on the point that the task that he gave his subjects could not be compared to a real interpretation task, as far as text type and mode of delivery were concerned.

Tseng (1992:65) points out that little serious research has been conducted on interpretation, and there is still no consensus about whether interpretation is an art or a science.  An upshot to this obstacle, then is, public misconceptions about the profession. He notes that clients do not know how to recruit qualified interpreters, thereby enabling unqualified interpreters to survive in the market, provided they can maintain good relations with the clients. He also points out that because of the common misconception that interpretation ‘is effortless activity that can be done by any bilinguals’, clients think that it is easy to evaluate the quality of the interpretation services they are receiving (the case of interpreters of Pentecostal Churches in Niger Republic and other African countries as it will be seen in this study is quite revealing).

As for the interpretation mode, however, in the majority of papers still the conference one has been dominating. According to Cronin (2002:390), focusing on conference interpretation brings about favouring positivism in research. As a result, what is favoured is “further depoliticized, minimally contextualized experiments, carefully controlled by a researcher who assumes objectivity” (ibid). Furthermore, these experiments will be carried out almost invariably in conference interpretation on the ground that the booth is the nearest thing we have in interpretation to a cage. Instead, Cronin suggests,  the interpreter could be viewed as a participant in a dialogue. In this case, the context and culture influenced subjective realities would be rightly considered. Cronin points out that then the whole scale of contexts and cultures would be taken into account and our actual professional endeavours would be analysed adequately. This would create a research situation where, as  Cronin (2002:390) puts it, “reciprocal contexts” for “cultural interpretations” are borne in mind and real-world performance will be analysed while “realities” we live in and perceive would be “negotiated” as “multi-subjective, power-laden and  incongruents”. At the same time, Cronin urges us to remember that the notion of culture itself is dynamic and that “culture” is always relational, an inscription of communicative processes that exist, historically, between subjects in relation to power” (Clifford and Marcus cited by Cronin 2002:390).

While Pöchhaker (2004: 79), speaks about the social turn in interpretation studies today, Cronin (2002:391-393) introduces the notion of cultural turn. Danica Seleskovitch and Marianne Lederer, developed a theory based on the distinction between linguistic meaning and non-verbal sense, where non-verbal sense is defined in relation to a translating process. The common denominators for this approach become a call for greater dynamics and flexibility, contextualization, insight and acceptance.

The deplorable state of the research on interpretation is the same all over the world. In Nigeria, for example, many translators such as Ukoyen of the University of Ibadan, Ajiboye of the Univerity of Ilorin, Bariki of the University of Ilorin and many others have written many books and articles on translation. With regards to Ph.D. theses, the same phenomenon occurs. Some examples are Iyalla-Amadi’s thesis (2000) on technical translation of French Energy terms into Yoruba; Kolawole’s thesis (2005) on fidelity in translation, while very few works have been done on interpretation and even those works are not purely based on interpretation. They rather focus on the comparative aspects such as, Fagbohun’s thesis (2006) which critically examines the fundamental differences and similarities between translation and interpretation as two important aspects of interlingual communication.  Based on the theory of the Paris School of Translators and Interpreters, University of Paris III and his personal experience as a freelance translator/interpreter, Fagbohun highlights the fact that it is not the language alone that is translated or interpreted but the message behind it. According to him, machine translation is an adjunct at the service of mainstream human translation because, unlike the machine, the human interpreter goes beyond language to unravel the intended meaning of the speaker whereby aesthetics, inner creativity and flexibility are revealed.

 

Conclusion

At this point, one could see the many efforts deployed in the formulation of translation and interpretation theories used as tools for intercultural communication, which will surely continue as long as translators/interpreters and linguists are still pursuing the academic line. Our fear is the limitation in works done on interpretation. In opposition to all these research works on interpretation and translation, a great privilege could also be given to community interpretation among Pentecostal Churches by breaking the existing silence of the experts in interpretation studies generally, and especially in religious interpretation, as a community interpretation which is quite different from the two major areas of community interpretation: the legal and health community interpretation.  The religious interpretation will then be defined as an interpretation done in a religious setting, with religious terms and by a religious interpreter. It can be handled as a conference or a community interpreting in a simultaneous or consecutive way, using Seleskovitch’s theory of sense based on understanding, knowledge and expression as well as Nida’s theory of dynamic equivalence based on the transmission of the simplest meaning by mainly putting the receptor into consideration. The great difference lies in the terminology which is mainly related to religion. It is mostly based on the belief, the vision and the socio-cultural needs of the particular religious set up involved. Hence, the appropriate interpreters are supposed to be real adherents.

 

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Résumé

La problématique du développement durable dans le Tiers-Monde, particulièrement en Afrique, ne peut être abordée sans mettre en exergue la question du respect des droits de l’homme et des libertés individuelles. Pour se faire, l’éducation a un rôle primordial a jouer pour relever et transcender les défis multiples qui s’opposent a l’avènement d’une société africaine libérée de tant d’obstacles redoutables qui menacent d’enfoncer ce grand continent dans une sous-catégorie de « Quart-Monde ». Ces fléaux, pour n’en citer que les plus accablants prennent la forme de phénomènes socio-économiques et politiques tels que la fuite des cerveaux, la mal-gouvernance, le chômage, l’immigration clandestine, l’analphabétisme, le changement climatique, les maladies endémiques, et les crimes. Il est a noter que ces facteurs sont interactifs et, de prés ou de loin, relèvent de la mal-gouvernance et de politiques anti-démocratiques.

 

 

Introduction

Developmental progress and the fulfillment of the human potential in Africa have been impeded by conflicts and the violation of fundamental rights. Without the advent, promotion and protection of fundamental freedoms and basic rights, that all societies need to develop, the quest for stability and peace will remain elusive and unattainable (Sankore, 2004). While education’s timeless mandate is to be positioned at the helm and leadership of change, it certainly goes without saying, in the case of Africa, that the magnitude of the challenge of development would require a broad-based approach that transcends conventional academic settings and traditional curricula (Tandon, 1988). Such holistic approach, according to Tandon, will require educational institutions to partner with their constituencies to vulgarize peace literacy and effect change in attitude and perception by building on traditional , indigenous values that are consistent with core notions of peace.

Paradoxically, (higher) education institutions, particularly teacher-colleges in the continent, have failed to assume leadership responsibility and accountability in fostering relevant reform by integrating peace curricula in their programs; consequently, they create unfavorable conditions for learners, future leaders of change, to be un-empowered in peace dynamics. More than ever before, urgency demands that momentous and sustained action be initiated by education decision-makers to bridge the peace skills-deficit gap and heighten awareness among stakeholders, civil society, and government to step up efforts at remediating this most compromising status-quo.

 

Interdependency of Human Rights, and Development

 

To highlight the interdependency between progress and rights, the UN Human Development Report (HDR) defines, “Human Rights as intrinsic part of Development, and Development as a means to realizing Human Rights; it shows how Human Rights bring principles of accountability and social justice to the process of human development” (2000). As indicated by the Human Development Index (HDI), out of 53 African nations, as part of 179 countries surveyed, 30 rank poorest at the bottom lowest and the rest in the bottom medium of the HDI (2008). Staggering data have now become but all too commonplace when it comes to descriptive statistics to quantify the development deficit of the Continent. Referring to Africa’s predicament in his address to the International Peace Academy Seminar, Amoako (1996) brings this urgency to act home, as he observes in indignation: “I do not need to stand before you today and cite a litany of cold, hard statistics to define the economic and social woes caused by conflict or to convince you we need urgent solutions” (Peace building, Peace Making, Peace Keeping, para.5).

 

Impact of human rights violation on development

 

When Africa’s crises- ridden past and current notoriety as a continent ridden with “failed” states, still at grips with unresolved conflicts, economies in shamble, and impotent school systems, is carefully reviewed, one cannot help but conclude that Africa’s is a lost cause. Even more dreadful are the far-reaching myriad implications triggered by these crises, which are observable through the phenomena of a) the Brain Drain (BD), b) bad governance, c) unemployment, d) the refugee crisis (internally and externally displaced people), e) illiteracy, f) environmental degradation, g) disease, and h) crime, to spotlight the most prominent.

 

a. The Brain Drain: Statistical Overview and background

 

According to Zeleza (2002), the total number of international migrants, including Migrant refugees and asylum seekers, grew from 75 million in 1965 to 120 million in 1990, and as of the last estimates, 175 million in 2002. From 1960 to the 1980’s, Canada, the UK, and the USA accepted over 500.000 specialists (health professionals, scientists, and engineers) from developing countries (Ushkalov & Malakha, 2001.). Of the 345,000 scientists and engineers with Ph.D.s,101,000 were born abroad; that 15.5% of all scientists,engineers, and one in three Ph.D.s were also born abroad (Gwynne, 1999). Versi (2003) points out that five million African professionals and entrepreneurs are living in the diaspora and 40% of higher level managers and professionals are expatriates. In 1978, the Sudan, as a case in point, lost 17% of its doctors, 20% of university lecturers, and 30% of its engineers, owing primarily to push factors in the form of basic rights violation (Mclymont, 2001). This chaotic condition, in no uncertain terms, accounts for the morass prevailing in Africa’s biggest country- Sudan.

Ong’wen (1994), quoting from the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and International Organization for Migration (IOM) experts, reports that since 1990 at least 20,000 people migrate from the continent yearly and that 60,000 professionals made up of doctors, university lecturers, engineers left between 1985 and 1990. He further reveals that 30,000 Africans with PhDs live outside the continent while there are 20,000 scientists, representing about 3.6% of the world’s scientific population, for Africa’s 600 million people. There are more African-born scientists and engineers working in the USA than there are in Africa. An estimated 600 Ghanaian doctors work in New York city alone and 21,000 Nigerian doctors practice in the USA although there continues to be chronic shortage of health professionals in their countries.

According to the US Census Bureau report (2000), the African immigrant population is estimated at 881,300. As a group, they were not only more highly educated than their counterparts at home, but also represent one of the most highly educated migrant groups in the US; ironically, at a time when the Continent is in dire need of expert manpower with illiteracy being rampant. As affirmed by Carrington and Detragiache (1999), African immigrants to the United States, “…consist primarily of highly educated individuals…Migration of Africans with only a primary education is almost nil.” (p. 48). The US Census Bureau (2001) outlines in its report that 49.3% of African immigrants aged 25 and over hold at least a Bachelor’s degree, significantly higher than the national average of 25.6%.

One of the most invaluable and active resource reservoirs in the fight to reverse BD is the IOM whose many programs to assist Africans and other nationals to return to their countries of origin remain yet an uphill battle. Among its most notable programs are the Migration for Development in Africa (MIDA) which provides assistance to migrants on their way to new lives, facilitates labor migration, post emergency returns and reintegration programs, recruitment of highly qualified nationals for return in their respective countries, and aid to migrants in distress- to name a few of their functions. A host of smaller agencies in partnership with the African Union (AU), the African Development Bank, international funding organizations, the private sector, African government agencies, the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), efforts to meet the Millenium Development Goals (MDG), and other internal and external stakeholders as well have also emerged in an attempt to help quell this (BD) developmental crisis.

It is however important to note that these bodies despite their apparent zeal and enthusiasm are still nowhere near achieving the desired goals and closing the expansive gap; for, under the IOM’s program, Return and Reintegration of Qualified African Nationals (RQAN), only 2,565 qualified Africans have been assisted to return to take up jobs in their respective countries between 1983 and 1995. The largest program to date has helped only 1,500 people to return to six targeted countries, namely Ghana, Kenya, Somalia, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe (Ngunjiri, August 2001)

Arguably, it is certainly a legitimate claim that the Brain Drain is hailed by many experts in the field as the single most daunting challenge Third World countries face. The wealth of documentation to that effect unequivocally speaks volumes and is hard to dismiss.

The literature data that it evokes with respect to the massive loss of highly skilled professionals from developing countries to western richer nations is quite overwhelming (Kaba, 2004).

The drain on poorer nations has considerably exacerbated and widened the existing development gap between North and South, empowering the former while weakening the latter thereby increasing dependency of developing nations on costly developed nations’ foreign consultants (MIDA, 2005). Reuters News Service reports that the Brain Drain costs Africa $4 billion a year, the actual cost of western experts annually. In his article entitled, Foreign Experts and National Development, Akordor (2005) decries the extent of this paradox with respect to high consultancy fees paid to foreign experts, a fraction of which could have availed jobs to many a local expert and skilled expatriate, making a great difference in Africa’s development efforts. He concludes thus, stating that ultimately “We cannot continue to lament the brain drain when we willingly pay foreigners handsomely to do a job that can be done better by local people at a lesser cost” (p. 1). Indeed Africans themselves must once and for all come to terms with these contradictions and inconsistencies.

In his online article, Turning Brain Drain into Brain Gain, Wanjohi’s (2004) following poignant lament brings home the pathetic plight of the Continent thus: Africa, and the Third World for that matter, would be far beyond most affluent nations had its sons and daughters who migrated for greener pastures and politically safer havens abroad, been given right employment opportunities, remuneration, and a secure socio-political environment. But the brains are being used to build the economies of other countries, a paradoxical situation that has put this continent in a begging position; yet it has the resources required for development”. http://www.africasbraingain.org/newsletter/october/issue1/

Indeed, this paradox takes on the contours of a double standard. While evidenced by Africa’s posture as the leading world recipient of these high profile programme proceeds (Sankore, 2005), these programmes irremediably undermine development efforts, nullify  the modest gains achieved, and are central to the abysmal divide between developed and developing countries, particularly in SSA (Herbert, 2005). Analysts have sounded the alarm and warned international development organizations and human rights organization advocates of this growing menace to their accomplishments and efforts.

Education stakeholders, civil society leaders, the corporate sector, and liberal international development agencies worldwide, e.g. IOM, MIDA, RQAN, and Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) have all bemoaned this deterrence to progress dubbing it as “aid package” to the West; some even going as far as calling for compensation and reparations for investment wielded by developing countries to train these intellectuals, only for them to be co-opted and taken full advantage of by developed nations (Ntull, 2004).

To further exacerbate this bleak picture, hindering government initiatives such as the US Green Card Diversity Lottery (GCDL) and its counterpart the UK Highly Skilled Migrant Programme (HSMP), which, instead of participating and aiding in efforts at assisting in banishing poverty from the Third World, are instead exclusively targeting the highly skilled and best minds from the developing world in general, and Africa in particular, for sustenance of their development; thus, causing the achievement of Millenium Development Goals to be less likely.

Clearly, the developed world’s unfulfilled promises and commitments to helping alleviate the plight of poor developing nations is de facto punctuated by a blatant absence of good will, to say the least.

On the eve of the 13^th ordinary session of the AU at Sirte, Libya, Shetty (2002), Director of the UN Millenium Campaign brings this pathetic paradox home in his address to the assembly, explaining that:

The stark contrast between the money disbursed to the desperately poor after years of painstaking summits and negotiations and the staggering sums  found virtually overnight to bail out the creators of the global economic crisis makes it impossible for government to claim any longer that the world cannot find the money to help the 50.000 people who are dying of hunger and extreme poverty every day

 

Nobel Prize winning human rights organization, PHR (2004) recommended, through a released report, that western wealthy nations reimburse African states for the loss of their health professionals who leave their countries for the West after being trained by African universities at the expense of the people of the continent. Mazrui (2002) reinforces this claim, arguing that: “In effect, we are operating one-third of African universities to satisfy the manpower needs of Western nations. One-third of the African education budget is a supplement for the American education budget. In effect Africa is giving development assistance to the United States.” (pp. 86-87). It is estimated that an average of US$50.000, is invested by poor countries, from their scarce resources, on each university graduate, only to see them depart to richer destinations; thus, the have-nots end up subsidizing the haves by exporting their human capital (Vaknin, 2002).

 

From Brain Drain to Brain Gain: Reversing the Trend

 

There exists, however, another “solution-oriented” school of thought that sees opportunity in every crisis; this non-traditional breed of forward-looking thinkers has coined the term Brain Gain (BG)as the solution to reverse the Brain Drain (BD), as the answer to a trend that appears unstoppable as long as underdevelopment conditions prevail. Most observers, abreast of the ongoing debate about ABD/ABG, would agree that it is unrealistic to expect the bulk of the emigrants to return home as many have established families, roots, and secured comfortable employment, a comfort zone, and high paying jobs that they are reluctant to trade with incertitudes associated with returning to the homeland (Emeagwali, April 2002).

The repatriation of talents can take on different forms; it can be executed through non-human ways such as through the return of invaluable talent, financial/material contributions, and expertise needed by developing countries to build capacity in areas found lacking. This will give expatriates the opportunity to participate in the development of their country without physically repatriating and would enable Africans everywhere to share their expertise by participating in projects at home (Wanjohi, 2004).

According to Kaba (2004), the BD has a positive short and long term impact as well, when one considers the benefits and proceeds from remittances from expatriates working well paying jobs in the West. He reports that remittances to the developing world exceed foreign aid; and that in 2003, worldwide remittances to underdeveloped countries were in excess of $100 billion. Based on the estimates of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the African Diaspora constitutes the largest group of foreign investors in the Continent.

The return of talents for the promotion of capacity-building could take several forms, including the establishment of educational/intellectual exchange partnerships between expatriates in the West and local (higher) education institutions in the Third World. Today, a small number of higher education institutions  are in fact “timidly” engaged in such partnerships with counterparts within and without the African continent. The UNESCO (Studying Abroad-Brain Drain to Brain Gain) Mali project provides an innovative approach to the phenomenon of the “Brain Drain” and the extensive emigration of skilled professionals. The project capitalizes on the skills of nationals living abroad to promote international intellectual cooperation, via the donation of education supplies/materials through, say, Alumni Resource Centers- such as this researcher has initiated in a practicum proposal/report at Ashesi University college in Accra, Ghana (2003-2004). The transfer of knowledge through expatriate nationals programme at the university of Mali (Tokten Talmali) filled the urgent need for qualified teaching and research faculty in a number of key areas by bringing Malian scholars back home on short-term assignments (UNESCO, 2000, May).

While these proactive BG strategies are not geared to directly stopping the flight of intellectuals, they have the potential of upgrading living and educational standards. Such enhancement in people’s welfare could perhaps, indirectly, significantly reduce the expatriation rate of Third World intellectuals, gone to exile in search of secure environment and remunerative occupation. To the extent that these talent- repatriation strategies can perhaps foster capacity-building at home, BG initiatives hold the potential to mitigate the flight of intellectuals, thereby contribute to the promotion of pull factors

Clearly, it is about time that Third World countries learn lessons from the developed world’s practices which entail scanning the globe to identify talents that they need for their institutions to grow and prosper at the expense of sending countries that fail to retain their “brains”. Substantial effort commensurate to that wielded by the “first world” must be mobilized if Africa, and the Third World in general, is to attract the competencies of its diaspora back (Ndede-Amadi, March 2004).

Finally, it is key to note that the BD versus BG nexus is directly linked to fundamental freedoms and rights to dignified livelihood, a secure environment free of persecution and fear, equal access to education and government/public resources, and the enjoyment of democratic rights where overall human needs are met (UN Charter, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948). It is also paramount to register that the following sub-parts cannot be considered in isolation. A comprehensive, holistic approach to the phenomena of the BD/BG, Bad Governance, Unemployment, the Refugee Crisis, Illiteracy, and Crime is a pre-condition if we are to have the proper understanding of the interplay and interaction of these forces among themselves and vis-a-vis basic human rights/needs (Burton, 1997).

 

b. Bad governance also ranks topmost on the challenge list. Good or bad  governance involves the upholding or violation of democratic rights of the citizenry across a broad range of parameters, all describing an increase or deficit in the ability of a social organization to achieve the goals that are set by that organization. The more political power an organization or individual can wield, the higher level of capacity it has (Raines, 2004). Bad governance is characterized by a neglect or, rather, failure to implement and enhance effective policies and programs to strengthen the capacity of government institutions and civil society organizations. A case in point is the example of the Organization of American States which, in order to strengthen its culture of peace, utilized diplomacy and dialogue processes (Soto, 2004). It is incumbent upon government to address challenges of human survival and welfare by helping people to achieve their own development objectives (Lusthaus, Adrien, & Perstinger, 1999).

Leaders in general, particularly African leaders, must grapple with the reality that lack of progress and stability, while oftentimes externally orchestrated, is also largely internally-driven as well. Human rights violation, election rigging, autocratic rule/dictatorship, economic mismanagement, undemocratic political systems and policies, nepotism, clientelism, xenophobia, and structural violence, to name the most salient, are responsible for much of the mayhem that undermines sustainable development and peace, especially in the African region. In highlighting the importance of conflict management, it is, unmistakably, when leaders and states fail to address primary vital concerns and basic needs of citizens that conflict/violence brews, escalates, and degenerates. The African leadership should take a second look at their behavior and policy choices, discouraging corruption, embracing transparency , and protecting fundamental freedoms and good governance (Irobi, 2005).

The New Partnership for African Development’s (NEPAD) African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), under the auspices of the African Union (AU) is established to review, monitor and assist AU member states in observing and complying with good governance indicators using a set of benchmarks as evaluation criteria to determine to what degree good governance standards are being met (Mbeki, 2003). Though a monitoring entity, the APRM’s intent  is not punitive but rather collegial, working only with those countries that voluntarily choose to be members and share commitment to the democratic ideals articulated in the Rome Declaration. 

The third Heads of State Implementation Committee (HSIC) meeting in Rome (2002), that adopted the Declaration on Democratic, Political, Economic, and Corporate governance, defined the APRM, as an instrument voluntarily acceded to by African members of the African Union for the purpose of self-monitoring…will foster the adoption of policies, standards, and practices that will lead to political stability, high economic growth, sustainable growth, and accelerated regional integration of the African Continent”. (HSIC, as quoted by Cilliers in The Development of the APRM, Para. 2).

As the most creative aspect of NEPAD, the APRM, cued after the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Europe, represents an ambitious attempt by African countries to lever themselves out of the cycle of instability and poverty to which the Continent has been condemned (Cilliers, 2002). APRM is premised on the urgency of improving democratic, political, economic, and corporate governance, with strong commitment to end conflict for the advent of sustainable economic growth. It encourages African countries to analyze and assess their own progress and performance, and develop their own responses.

 

c. Unemployment, instrumental in triggering the refugee crisis, the BD and  crime, is directly linked to poor financial mismanagement  and bad governance policies. While the BD is concerned with emigrating intellectuals and the loss of vital talent, unemployment or/and underemployment set off growing waves of illegal migrants, most of whom belong to underprivileged low classes with relatively low or no level of formal education. These clandestine risk-taking migrants’ “iron will” determination to expatriate at any cost, is indicative of the harsh and adverse living conditions faced at home. A case in point is the tragic capsizing of a boat headed to Italy, with over 300 illegal migrants on board, off the coast of Libya. Former Portuguese Prime Minister Guterres’s (2009) poignant remarks in the wake of this tragedy speak volumes about the extreme ripple effects triggered by untenable substandard living conditions in the Continent;  he describes the catastrophe as, “the latest tragic example of a global phenomenon in which desperate people take desperate measures to escape conflicts, persecution and poverty in search of a better life.” (Reuters Newspaper, 2009, March 31).

High unemployment rates account for structural violence by also compounding poverty and crime, thus encouraging illegal activity in addition to illegal immigration. Gainful employment is known to make for “whole” human beings with high self-esteem, moral ethics, and dignity who can be trusted in nation building. In sum, endowed with these inalienable rights, the individual will very likely transform into a full citizen and agent of positive change and development.

The current global economic recession presages an even bleaker picture for the underdeveloped world; eventhough orchestrated by developed nations, poor countries stand to bear the brunt of this financial downturn. This global crisis has direct implication on unemployment and welfare, thus exacerbating  an already desperate and bleak status-quo in Third World nations (International Monetary Fund, BBC TV Broadcast, 2009, June 21). Verily, Africa’s predicament seems hopeless when one factors into the economic dearth it is entrenched in the double jeopardy of domestic and external inimical factors that inhibit its overall recovery and sustained progress.

 

d. The refugee crisis (internally and externally displaced people), partially  discussed earlier in the unemployment section, is an issue that cannot be dealt with in isolation from the foregone and upcoming discussion. This crisis has also weathered the impact of the economic meltdown which has compounded it considerably. While the causes of the refugee crisis are multiform, ranging from war and conflict to environmental degradation, the global financiaI recession has worsened and hampered ongoing initiatives aimed at containing this unprecedented humanitarian challenge.

According to a 2004 UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) report (2005), the world refugee population reached 9.2 million people, a formidable challenge to humanitarian organizations, particularly the UNHCR. Human rights protection, food aid, and health care represent the main preoccupations and overriding needs of both the internally and externally displaced.

In essence, there is a plethora of refugees (from internal/external refugees, to political and climate refugees); this section, however, is mainly concerned with the internally and externally displaced whose basic rights are violated; these refugees are the direct result of conflict  (i.e. civil wars and unrest) and “non-human” orchestrated crises (i.e. drought, flood, soil   degradation, and other environmental disasters). For the most part, ethnic conflict is responsible for most of both the internally and externally displaced; and in addition to leaving widespread chaos in infrastructural destruction, it creates famine, homelessness, not to mention the human physical and psychological toll that comes with it. Often, women and children are its primary victims as they represent the most vulnerable group of society.

 

e. Illiteracy in mainstream education is a measure of denial of rights. As far back as the XIX Century, Mann’s (1848) assessment  of education echoes timelessly through the ages to the XXI Century, relevant as ever, as he captured the essence of education  describing it as the “great equalizer” of the conditions of men and the balanced wheel of the social machinery. Illiteracy is certainly a threat to the future of developing nations in many respects and is a seed of tension and conflict; alarming figures abound in the literature to raise awareness about the need to stem this rising trend and keep up with population growth in Third World countries. Developing nations can hardly afford current conditions of skills-deficit, let alone a dwindling shrinking pool of talent at a time of even greater demand.

Undoubtedly, it is when citizens are literate that they are empowered to access information critically, initiate action based on their own decision, and articulate their demands for social change; this makes an educated citizenry a requirement for a democracy (Aithal, 2007). Indeed all criteria of involvement in good institutional governance, e.g. consensus building, public/ election participation, negotiation, are all predicated on banishing illiteracy (Nicaraguan Community Movement, 2007)

 

f. Environmental degradation, a result of human activity, is now commanding world leaders’ attention in an unprecedented way; a solution to the stalemate is urgently warranted if climate change is to be reversed or kept in check. The frequency and potency of natural disasters, increase in the earth temperature and melting of polar icebergs have already set off a domino-effect causing unspeakable damage through the rise of ocean water levels, flooding of coastal and low-lying areas and soil erosion, resulting in large population displacement and tens of thousands of climate refugees. Consensus-building through a cooperative approach to tackle this non-human enemy, global warming, is direly and imperatively needed to curb this threat. As bad luck would have it, Third World countries are up to now the ones bearing the brunt, with armies of internally displaced (i.e. Indonesia) searching for safer and more livable conditions.

Competing for scarce resources in foreign territory is in itself an act which carries the potential for conflict and adversity.

 

g. Disease and epidemics find their ideal grooming ground in poverty and unsanitary  living conditions such as is found in refugee camps and ghettos. Having low, or no, level of literacy worsens the vulnerability and susceptibility of the disenfranchised to disease/epidemics, the like of malaria, aids, and cholera. The crowded conditions and promiscuity in refugee camps and shanties (ghettos) also increase the likelihood of the spread of disease during an outbreak.

 

h. As it is often rightfully claimed, poverty breeds crime and violence. If people’s fundamental freedoms and rights are violated as a result of being chronically unemployed and when they are denied the right to be self-sufficient and live in dignity because of the lack of practical skills, training, and access to basic educational opportunities, one may expect them to resort to illegal behavior and crime for their survival. It is therefore no coincidence that the crime statistics generally recorded in poor neighborhoods far exceed crime rates in more affluent areas.

Kritz (1996) contends that it is of essence to maintain the rule of law to devise rules, regulations, and procedures that constrain the powers of all parties and hold them accountable for their deeds. This can potentially lessen the likelihood of further tension and crime/conflict. It is however key to give focal priority to root-causes of crime that can only be overturned permanently when people are guaranteed their basic rights and their vital needs are restored. Lund (2001)supports and further elaborates on Kritz’s point by noting that the provision of economic opportunities to ensure that citizens basic needs are met is critical; because economic factors that put society at risk include lack of employment opportunities food scarcity, and lack of access to natural resources

To conclude, it is of essence to call attention on the interconnectedness of the far-reaching implications of human rights violation as they are mutually inclusive. A comprehensive holistic understanding of this interrelationship is key to a proper comprehension of the complex reaches and ramifications of human rights violation. Development in the Continent will continue to be a vain and nihilistic pursuit as long as fundamental human freedoms and a paradigm shift are dismissed.

 

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Résumé

La construction de l’identité personnelle dans l’art verbal haoussa

Les premières études sur les traditions et littératures orales africaines ont été largement axées sur la façon dont l'environnement influence l'artiste traditionnel et son travail. S'inspirant de l'anthropologie et de la litterature médiévale, ces études étaient plus intéressées à étudier les modes de vie des peuples dits primitifs que d’analyser leurs récits oraux comme des œuvres de création littéraire individuelle. L'intérêt dans l'artiste traditionnel comme créateur d’œuvres artistiques est un développement récent dans la recherche et critique littéraire contemporaines. Conformément à ce nouvel intérêt, des chercheurs comme Isidore Okpewho (1992) ont appelé leurs collègues à travailler pour l’identification des techniques pouvant contribuer à singulariser des artistes traditionnels en accordant une attention particulière à la façon dont ces artistes créent leurs identités individuelles parfois contre les pressions des traditions locales. C’est dans cet esprit que cet article explore la construction de l’identité personnelle et artistique de certains artistes haoussa à travers l'auto-identification dans leurs chansons. En d'autres termes, l’article va examiner la création de l’identité personnelle et artistique, c’est-à-dire comment un artiste traditionnel exprime ses préoccupations privées ou individuelles distinctes des préoccupations collectives dans le contexte de la culture populaire. En utilisant des approches théoriques sur les cultures et littératures orales ou populaires, l’article va donc examiner des chansons des artistes populaires haoussa en focalisant sur les tensions entre leurs horizons d'attente sous la forme de leurs aspirations à la liberté, la réussite personnelle et le bonheur d'une part et sur les contraintes sociales et culturelles inhérentes à leurs communautés d'autre part, témoignant ainsi d'un vrai travail de création littéraire.

Mots clés: Auto-identification ; identite ; art verbal ; Haoussa ; Yan Kama ; médiéval ; anthropologie ; philologie ; Niger ;

Nigeria.

 

 

 

Introduction

Does literary creation exist in oral civilizations? What is literary creativity in oral literature? In other words, does self exist in oral literature? Or does the oral artist exist as an individual expressing or narrating his self or her self in a popular, oral culture?

Many scholars asked these same questions before, but their answers have been different or even contradictory. On my part I first intend to explore the causes of the scholars’ divergence in their interpretations of literary creativity in oral civilizations in general and in oral literature in particular as well as the influence those interpretations have had on the early studies on African oral traditions and literatures. This exploration will also stand as a review of the literature in the study and criticism of oral civilization and literature in general and of African oral literatures in particular. Then in the second part I will focus on the artists Zabia Hussei and Dogon Loma, a burlesque comedian, both from Niger and others from Nigeria such as Maman Shata Katsina.

My interest in these artists lies in how they construct their identities as artists through self-identification as authorial signature in their oral songs or performances. In other words, the paper will investigate notions of self as a mark of literary creativity and identity through the creative endeavour of these oral artists in their attempt to express either their private or individual concerns as distinct from the collective ones in their traditional, community-oriented context of popular culture or to single out some individuals as major achievers or heroes. But what is literary creativity in oral literature, to begin with?

According to M. a M. Ngal (1977:336), in every work in oral tradition “…there occurs a true labor of creativity that is not the work of an anonymous community or of associations due to pure chance but is rather the product of the active dynamism of the individual genius.” The question that arises, pursues Ngal, is whether the presence of the creative act is passive or active. Passive if the artist undergoes the act from society without any resistance and active if the act is personal and original. Since tradition is a communal reservoir from which everybody can draw something, creativity is the active reaction of the artist who re-expresses that given in his/her own fashion. For it is that fashion or style, argues Ngal, “that truly constitutes literary creation.”(p.343) In the same line of thought, Rosalind Thomas (1992) sees the signs of self through the expression of individual feelings, the mention of one’s own personal affairs and personality.

But scholars on medieval Europe who are influenced by the nineteenth century schools of thought like Evolutionism and Romanticism argued that the self or individual did not exist in the Middle Ages in general and before the Renaissance in particular. In a discussion on epic poetry in Finland, for example, Lauri Honko (1990:3) relates the prevailing idea that epic poetry is the creation of the collectivity to the influence of the romantic period. As a result, Honko concludes, “The moment a single author could be singled out, the product ceased to be folklore, because collectivity was the dividing line between folk poetry and art poetry.” It follows from Honko’s argument that the birth of art poetry is concomitant with the birth of the individual author, which in turn implies a break with the ancient notion of collective authorship mostly symbolized by the Troubadour in Europe.

This break is also the argument of Gregory B. Stone in the book entitled The Death of the Troubadours: the Late Medieval Resistance to the Renaissance (1994). As a matter of fact, Stone supports the notion of collective authorship by describing medieval Europe as a period in which “the singular, individual subject is in fact plural, or I is essentially identical to the they. The medieval I can only think what they think, can only say what they have already said. (Stone: 2-3; emphasis in the original) In other words, the concept of the individual or self as an independent entity and identity did not exist in the pre-renaissance or medieval world (see also Peter Haidu 1974:7).

Both Honko and Stone equate individualism or selfhood with Renaissance, which means a break between the medieval and modern worlds. While Honko speaks of the moment a single author could be identified as the birth of art poetry, Stone speaks of Renaissance as the beginning of the subjective self. This is why for Stone, the Renaissance or modern world is characterized by an “unprecedented birth of the concept and possibility of the individual, subjective self, the private, self-determining, unique, autonomous ego.” (Stone1994: 1)

Lee Patterson (1990:92) also sees the Renaissance as the beginning of the modern world along with its humanism, nationalism, the proliferation of competing value systems, the secure grasp of a historical consciousness, aesthetic production as an end in itself, and the emergence of the idea of the individual. But what were the real obstacles, if there was any, to the emergence of self before the late medieval period?

For scholars like A. J. Minnis (1984) the most important obstacle to the emergence of self in that period was the influence of the Christian religion. This is because in the eyes of the medieval Christians, the Bible was the most authoritative text par excellence and God was its Supreme author. Next to God as the primary author came the ancient pagan “author” whose experience and style were needed for the interpretation of certain biblical texts. Moreover, because the pagan “author” was not Christian, he could claim the authorship of his texts, which is the reason why he was considered arrogant at the time in contrast to the humble “author”, the one reluctant to claim the authority of his ideas and style. It was therefore the existence of humble authors in a greater number that led to the emergence of the medieval notion of a collective authorship as described by Gregory B Stone (1994) and others above. For that reason, comments Minnis, the twelfth century exegetes (and also early literary critics) were mostly interested in human authors as vessels of God’s authority and as such important only to the extent that they uncovered the Biblical truth. It was therefore this pattern that the exegetes strove to describe, not the specific quality or creativity of any human author.

  As for Stephen G. Nichols (1977:88), the influence of philology on medieval studies is responsible for the neglect of the human author’s creativity and stylistic originality. In fact, Nichols has noted that philology limited the role of the artist, the poet in particular, to that of “a discoverer, an unveiler.” (idem.) It comes as no surprise that for Nichols, modern theories like formalism and structuralism that have attempted to kill the author found their origin in this medieval practice.

Other obstacles came from theories based on limited areas of study and consciously avoiding the creative effort of the oral artist. In Troubadours and Eloquence (1975), Linda M. Paterson disputes one example of those theories that attribute the lack of individuality to the troubadour artist on the ground that the theory in question is mainly concerned with the lyric poetry of the trouvères oral artists in northern France. Paterson concludes that such a theory, “consciously avoiding individuality” (2), is inadequate to account for every literary production from different contexts through space and time.

The efficient cause or creative individual artist, notes A. J. Minnis (1981), started to emerge in the thirteenth century with John Spencer who was one of the first artists to accept personal authorship or responsibility of their texts. As a matter of fact, Spencer refused to follow the convention of his time by accepting “full responsibility for the sinful material that he wrote, and hopes that Christ in his mercy will forgive his sins.” (Minnis 1981:379)

Like the authors mentioned before, Minnis (1977) also considers the late Medieval period as the moment when the human author started to receive critical attention and interest. In the light of this change in attitude in the late Medieval period, scriptural exegetes started to be more interested in the adornments of language or style of the works under their consideration. Thus they stressed the fact that the human authors could manipulate “their styles with full awareness of the power of rhetorical figures.” (Minnis 1977:56) What is more, the thirteenth century commentators went even further as they started to used style as “the basis of an argument about another literary point, for example, about the authorship of a text.” (Minnis: idem.)

But if the change in attitude in favour of the adornment of language or style of the artist started in the thirteenth century, why did it take long to be accounted for in the study of African literature in general, and of oral literature in particular? One important reason has been the influence of movements like Romanticism and Evolutionism on the early studies on African oral traditions and literatures (see also Emilio Jorge Rodriguez (1994). Drawing from anthropological and medieval written discourses, these studies were in fact more interested in seeing oral narratives as records of a people’s way of life than as works of individual literary creation, making the interest in the oral performer as an individual artist a recent development.

No wonder that while analyzing the new trends in oral tradition research in Africa, Ruth Finnegan (1991:111) notes “more interest in questions of artistry and individual expression than before when the stereotypes of ‘communal’ culture and lack of change within cultures or contexts defined as ‘traditional’ often precluded the apparent relevance of such questions.” Finnegan also notices a second interest developing in the oral-written interaction and the process of change in general. Change is now granted to all cultures, not just to western ones. For all cultures do change and not necessarily in the evolutionist or linear way as thought by some western-centred intellectuals. In line with this new interest, scholars like Isidore Okpewho (1992) called on their colleagues to look for the particular techniques and references in the African oral performances that could point to a particular composer in a community, paying attention to ways in which the personality of the oral artist emerges and is sometimes forcefully asserted against the pressure of local tradition. An important objective of this article is to take up that call by examining the processes by which Hausa popular artists construct their artistic identities. As a result, the article is an attempt to explore how the Hausa oral artists below struggle to construct their artistic and personal identities through techniques of their own.

 

 

Some Hausa Oral Artists and their Struggle to Construct Artistic and personal Identities

 

Zabia Hussei

 

As I attempted to show elsewhere (Elhadji Oumarou 2010), Hussei’s songs are influenced by her personal experience. Married off by her father to one of her cousins she does not love, the young singer promised to comply with her father’s decision as a way to show her respect for both her father and tradition. Happy and honored to see his daughter comply with his wishes and demands, Zabia's father gave her his blessings and authorized her to resume her singing, free to go anywhere to perform.

To avoid conflicts with her father, Zabia uses a style of disguise to veil the tensions between her ambition of self-expression, self-reliance, self-confidence and economic independence on the one hand and her community’s cultural norms and family restrictions or pressures on the other hand. Examples of those tensions and conflicts are expressed through the young singer’s regrets concerning her promise to her father that she will never leave her unloved husband. She voices the regrets by not encouraging other girls to follow her steps in making that kind of promise. Instead, she advises them to marry the boys they love because 'the promise of a young girl is to love the boy who loves her’, (alƙawalin gomma ta so mai son ta).

Likewise, in the following excerpt that sounds like a synopsis of her bitter experience in marriage, the mature singer encourages the young girls to love the boys who love them rather than accept a forced marriage:

Domin na ƙaya ta huje salka,

in don ni gomma ki so mai son ki

I don’t mind a thorn piercing a waterskin

I don’t mind a girl loving the man who loves her.

 

The expression is allusive: a waterskin is a very handy domestic utensil in the Sahel region where water is a rare commodity and where carrying a waterskin is a marker of identity. Here a thorn piercing a waterskin can be interpreted as an attack on tradition, a call for destruction of the old system, a call for change, particularly where marriage is concerned. The maturing singer signals her engagement to the cause of female liberation and her opposition to abusive paternal authority.

Hussei extends her rebellious message to the male audience, especially young men on whom she calls to resist forced marriage by securing the means to pay the dowry for the young women they love: ‘young men, he who loves a girl should marry at his own expense’, [Samari ma duk mai son gomma shi armi ta kai nai] (Elhadji Oumarou 1996:80-81; revised 2010). This call for independence derives in part from the singer’s dissatisfaction with “zumunta” or blood relations, often strengthened by the added bonds of marriages, regardless of the partners’ willingness or unwillingness. Hussei’s anger with this situation leads her to virulent attacks on “zumunta”. She laments in one song that "Family isn’t worth a thing nowadays,” [yohi sakare zumuntar yanzu] (Elhadji Oumarou 1996: 82-83; revised in 2010).

The theme of regret of unnatural submission to paternal authority surfaces constantly in metaphorical terms in the songs of maturity:

              Zamman alwashi cikkar rabo shika sawa:

              alwashin kara a sha shi da ɗanye.

              Living by a pledge is risky;

               the pledge of sugar-cane is to give juice when it is fresh.

              (Elhadji Oumarou 1996:58-59; revised in 2010)     

 

Another risk is to become pregnant by the husband she does not love. After the experience of motherhood, the female persona in one of Zabia Hussei’s later songs, who as we now understand is clearly an autobiographical voice, compares herself to dry sugar-cane which can no longer produce juice. Added to the notion of regret is a sense of lost opportunity, deeply felt with the increase in years and the waning of beauty:

  Alwashin kara a sha shi da ɗanye,

  in ya kekashe ku damre darni

         The pledge of a fresh stalk of sugar-cane is to give up its juice;

     when old and dry, it is only good for fencing.

    (Elhadji Oumarou 1996:61-62; revised in 2010)

 

With the passage of time and the experiences of motherhood in less than ideal conditions, the artist has no illusions about being delightful fresh, young sugarcane. Regretted vows tie her to her marital home so new love is out of the question. Like dried sugarcane, she is just good for the yard.

 

Dogon Loma

 

Dogon Loma is a Dan Kama from the Republic of Niger. According to Mahaman Garba (1997: 212), we can translate Ɗan Kama as “the one who catches." Furniss (1996: 96) also reports that the term Ɗan Kama originates from the fact that the Yan Kama (pl.) steal food from the market which is the framework by excellence of their artistic performances. In addition, notes Garba, the Ɗan Kama juggles and catches the food that the public throws at him. However, says Garba, the word juggler does not cover all the semantics of Ɗan Kama. The performance of the latter consists of acrobatics, dance and play on words that pepper his speech whose critical and subversive aim is disguised in his spicy style based on various food ingredients.

For all these reasons, Garba compares him with the troubadour. As a singer and drummer, Ɗan Kama covers popular topics. He addresses everyone without exception and his favorite subject is food. Neither the king's griot, nor the griot of a very specific social stratum, as is often the case in Niger (see Garba 1992), the performance of Ɗan Kama is addressed mainly to the population. In Hausa, notes Garba, the Ɗan Kama is the symbol of the comedian par excellence. He is the man who at any time and any place is haunted by food preoccupations (see also Gidley 1967, Furniss 1995). He proclaims himself the hero of food as well as its poet or herald.

Ɗan Kama is particularly obsessed with food. Since each of us likes the good things, not to mention good food, but has some decency to tell it, the Ɗan Kama proclaims his love for food openly, thus transgressing the social convention about food. C. G. B. Gidley (1967: 59) also qualifies Ɗan Kama as an actor. Gidley notes however that Ɗan Kama often targets pedantic Islamic scholars (the marabouts) who are the representatives of Islam, the dominant religion in the Hausa land. Gidley specifies that parody and satire are the figures of speech used extensively by the Ɗan

Kama in his artistic performances.

 

As for Graham Furniss (1995: 143), he describes the Yan Kama as "burlesque players". But behind the Dan Kama’s concern for food lies a criticism of society through the questioning of the pretension to superiority of the dominant culture and ideology. In the light of the various assessments by different critics mentioned above, it appears that the Ɗan Kama is also an artist who wears many masks: the minstrel, troubadour, or burlesque comedian.

Another important feature of the Dan Kama is his preoccupation with himself to the detriment of the others in contradiction to the traditional norm of collective interest. In a parody of a sermon, which cannot be reproduced here in its entirety for lack of space, Dogon Loma, faithful to his concern with food, explains how a head of a family should distribute meals among the members of his family:

Wa tsama kuna tsama akuna[1]

Tsaki na sahe mai tsami, idan sahiya ta waye,

The left-over of (your) sour fura, in the early morning

Da hurar matar ka, da hurar iyalin ka,

With the fura of your wife and of the rest of the family

Ɗauke ka gangama ga gidauniyak ka.

Take and mix them all in your calabash

Kahwa kai shanye su duka,

Put your lips to the calabash and drink it all

Ka komo bakin gida kai zamanin ka.

And come back to the front (of the door of your house) and sit down

Kak ka ji matarka tana hwaɗa,

Do not pay attention to your wife in anger

Ƙiyale ta can, ka barta da kumya, ita anka jiya.

Ignore her in her corner, leave her with her shame, she will be the only one to be heard 

Kai dai ka yi maganin tsamukar ciki.

You, in any case, you treated your stomach spasms

Wa tsamakuna tsama akun[2]

Tsamen nama ya halitta ga mai gida,

Taking pieces of meat from the (cooking) pot is lawful for the head of family

Don kau shi ya sai abinai. 

For it is he who bought it

Domin ga wasaltawa, in za ka rabon nama,

Because according to tradition, when you share the meat

Kai mai gida, kashi talatin ka kai

You, the family head, thou shalt make thirty parts

Ka ɗebi kashi gomma sha ɗaya, maganin mantuwa na,

You take eleven parts, to guard against self-forgetfulness

Ka miƙa ma iyali kashi tara,

Nine parts you give to your family

Ka tashi da kashi ashirin da ɗai.

And you find yourself with twenty-one parts

…………………………………………..

Idan ka yi tuwo maƙwabci bai yi ba,

If you prepared food to eat and your neighbor did not

Maƙwabci hito biɗi naka,

So neighbor go out and try buying some for you

Ba haka niyi ba?

Is not that what I did?

 

It is clear from the above excerpt that for the Dan Kama, the self should come before the others, in his case even before his family which is the basis of the social structure. So it comes as no surprise that through this parody of a sermon by a Malam, who is a representative of the Muslim scholar and of Islam, the Dan Kama reverses the order of things: the tradition of sharing and mutual assistance, usually considered as central in the context of the traditional Hausa people, comes second to the self of the artist and reinforces his identity as a Dan Kama.

In another parody of the Bakandamiya (master song) by Alhaji Maman Shata Katsina, Dogon Loma also praises himself as unique and best in his profession. Listen to him:

Ɗan Kama:           Ya ahadu don girman zati.

                Oh the Almighty, by the greatness of the (divine) essence 

                              Allah ya yarda.

                              God gave me his agreement

                             Yara har yau ni ke ci

                 Children (chorus), up to now it is I who so far am really eating my food

                              Koko ba a samo rogo na ba?

                              Did you not bring me my cassava?

                               Ballanta in kwalba, in dai samu in dahwa shi;

                  So that I can peel it, cook it

                              Har in ce ma in canye.

                              And I can also say that I'm going to eat it?

                              Ku taya muna ku yan ƙosai

.                             Help us, you bean cake vendors

 

Yaran Ɗan Kama:    

                              Alo, alo mai ganga ya yi damu;

                              Alo, alo the singer prepared (his fura[3])

                              yaran mai ganga sun shanye.

                              And his children (the chorus) drank it all

 

Ɗan Kama:                

                               Sararin masa ban san tsoro ba;

                               At the space (for millet cake frying) I do not know fear

                               In na hito Ɗan Kama

                               Once out I'm really me Ɗan Kama

 

Ɗan Kama da Yaran Ɗan Kama:     

                             Dodo ka ci waina, kai na.

                              Dodo[4] you eat the millet cake, it befits you,

                              Sannan mu ci hwanke, mune.

                               We, hwanké (wheat cake) we eat, it befits us

                                Balle mai ƙosan rogo

                     And what about the vendor of the cassava cakes?

                                Ta san ni, na san ta

               She knows me (and) I know her

                                 Ko yaya, he?

                    So what do you think?

                   Alo, alo mai ganga ya yi damu,

                   Alo, alo the singer prepared his fura

                                 yaran mai ganga sun shanye.

               And his children (chorus) drank it all

 

Ɗan Kama:            

                              Na yi zama raɓen tanda,

                              I settled next to the millet-cake frying pot

                              Na huta da sayen masa.

                              I no longer have to buy (the cake)

                              In biyo, in warta in wuce,

             I come, I pilfer (some) and I continue my way

                              ko yaya?

             So what do you think?

 

To better understand the parody by Dogon Loma, it is important to examine the Bakandamiya of Shata Katsina which is the object of the parody.

Alhaji Maman Shata Katsina

Da ga can na fito sarari,

And then I went out into the open,

Na ce musu kun ga rashin Shata mai waƙa

I told them: you felt the absence of Shata, the singer.

Dan ba rabo da gwani ba,

For it is not parting with the best (singer) that is painful

Kafin a maida gwani shi a mai ciwo

But filling in the gap which his absence created

Ko da goro akwai marsa,

Even among the cola nuts there are marsa

Ko da a cikin mawaƙa akwai su,

Well much more so among the singers.

Ni ke shuri dare guda yaka girma.

I'm shuri the mound that sprouts and grows the same night.

 Allah ya yarda

God gave me his agreement

Har yau ni ke yi

So far I am the best

ku ko ba [ku] samo canji na ba,

And you have not found my replacement

Bare in zauna, wai har in ce zan huta,

So that I can stop, have a rest,

In dai samu in sarara,

Breathe a little air

Wane hutu Shata, ai kai ne

No rest, Shata, you're still on the saddle

Idan na fara Bakandamiya

When I start Bakandamiya,

Ji nake kamar malami gwanin tafsiri,

I feel like a marabout expert in Koranic exegesis

Malam amma fa gwani,

A marabout but really expert

Ya ja baƙi ya fasara ba tare da jin tsoro ba

That reads and interprets the verses without fear

Don ba’a gwaninta da tsoro, malam,

For, Mister, greatness cannot be achieved with timidity

Mai tsoro ba shi Gwaninta

The timid person cannot ever achieve greatness,

Ko wa ne, ko kuma ɗan wa.

Whoever he is, whatever his lineage

Alo, alo mai ganga ya gode,

Alo, alo the singer expresses his gratitude

Yaran mai ganga sun gode.(Hunter et Oumarou 2001:127; revised in 2011)

   His children (the chorus) express their gratitude (my translation)

Elsewhere in the same song Shata says:

Yanzu ma kamar mu ake so

Even now they are looking for someone like me

An ko kasa (Hunter et Oumarou 2001: 125; revised in 2011)

  But they can not find any (my translation).

 

In this Bakandamiya, images of greatness and self-importance are pervasive as Shata portrays himself as the greatest singer who is unrivaled by any other. That is why he compares himself to Marsa, the largest kola nut, so large that his absence (Shata’s) creates a gap too big to fill. According to Abdulkadir (qtd in Hunter and Oumarou 2001: 46) Shata likes his Bakandamiya too much because in it he praises himself and expresses his own feelings, thus giving the master song an autobiographical dimension.

Self-praise is indeed central to Bakandamiya, a term used to describe a Hausa poetic masterpiece often by the poets themselves. Muhammed (qtd in Hunter and Oumarou 2001:36) has noted the tradition of composing Bakandamiya in Hausa popular literature with well-known praise singers from Nigeria. For example, a composition by the poet Dan Anace entitled Shago, in praise of a famous wrestler of the same name, is referred to by Dan Anace as uwar waƙoƙi, ‘mother of all songs.’  It is significant that Dan Anace compares his patron’s (shago’s) power in wrestling with his (Dan Anace’s) own greatness and popularity in praise-singing:

          Arne ya ci moriyak kullinai

          Ni kau na ci moriyab bakina

          The Pagan has enjoyed the fruits of his clenched fist

And I too have enjoyed the fruits of my tongue. (Hunter and Oumarou 2001:35)

 

Self-praise is also central in Naranbaɗa’s Bakandamiya which he also calls ‘uwam mayyan waƙoƙi, ‘mother of great songs.’ It follows from the above examples of Bakandamiya that it is indeed a master piece, a favorite of the praise-singers, composed mostly for their self-praise and the construction of their artistic identities.

Shata sums up Bakandamiya’s most outstanding characteristics when he defines it as a composition that includes “ expressions which show how satisfied the poet is with himself, with his art, and with his world, as well as how defiant he [she] is of contrary expectations in his [her] life as a praise-singer.” (qtd from Muhammed in Hunter and Oumarou 2001:35; emphasis added)

 

Conclusion

We have seen how Zabia Hussei uses her style of disguise to sing the tensions that characterize her relationships with her father and society at large. Dogon Loma also uses satire and parody to create a subversive style in disguise. Through their respective styles, both are critical of their communities, partly as the result of their personal experiences. In fact, the two artists often use the first person I as autobiographical persona to express their individual concerns and artistic identities. In this sense, they differ from the medieval “humble” authors described by Minnis (1984) and the plural I by Stone (1994).

As a matter of fact, the arrogance of Dogon Loma’s style is close to the one of the pagan author of the Middle Ages described by Minnis (1984). It shows through his parody of some marabouts and Quranic verses as well as some songs by famous artists like Maman Shata Katsina. In any case, Dogon Loma’s style is subversive and individual in the sense of Ngal (1977). In his analysis of the style of a Dan Kama from Nigeria, Graham Furniss (1996:99) rightly affirms that

…the selection for the purpose of parody of registers of language appropriate to ‘serious’ stylized public utterances is in itself significant. The content of the parody does not constitute a counter-argument to the content of the original, but the very fact that inappropriate content is forced upon the imitated style highlights the features of that style such that they themselves become a part of the comedy and thus are perhaps never to be seen in quite the same light again.

 

The style of Maman Shata Katsina is as arrogant as Dogon Loma’s, especially in their defiance of some traditional social conventions:

Where Shata’s freedom of approach and attitude most directly manifest itself is in his willingness to take, on occasion, a contrary position to the dominant cultural values promulgated by the proponents of Islamic behavioural norms. Where poets may expiate at length on drink and other evils, Shata says that drinking [alcoholic drinks like beer] is no crime….It is this intriguing mixture of the risqué and the conventional which makes him so popular (Furniss 1996:151).

 

As shown earlier, Dogon Loma’s parody is equally directed against the dominant culture and ideology of Islam in Niger. Speaking of another Dan Kama from Nigeria, Furniss (1995:142) also notes that

Dominant culture is the world of Islamic learning [which is the case of Dogon Loma], of poetry-writing, of praise-song [which is the case of Dogon Loma parodying Shata Katsina], and of the use of English [in Nigeria]. Burlesque is part of a counter-culture… defining itself in part as having its own subject matter and in part in opposition to dominant cultural forms.

 

Références

• Finnegan, Ruth. “Tradition, But what Tradition and for Whom?”  InOral Tradition6/1 (1991): 104- 124.
• Furniss, Graham (1995), « The Power of Words and the Relation Between Hausa Genres », in Furniss, Graham and Gunner, Liz, eds.Power, Marginality and African Oral Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 130-146.         
• Furniss, Graham (1996),Poetry, Prose and Popular Culture in Hausa.Washington, D.C. Smithsonian Institution Press.
• Garba, Mahaman (1992),La musique des hawsa du Niger. Thèse de doctorat en musicologie. Strasbourg : Université des Sciences Humaines de Strasbourg/U.F.R. des Arts/Département de musique.
• Garba, Mahaman (1997), « Fonction sociales des griots hawsa du Niger », in Junzo, Kawada (sous la dir. de).Cultures sonores d’Afrique, Tokyo: ILCAA: 157-235.
• Gidley, C.G.B (1967), « Yankamanci-the craft of the Hausa comedians »,African Language Studies8:52-81.
• Honko, Lauri, ed.Religion, Myth, and Folklore in the World’s Epics. New York: Walter de Gruyter & Co., 1990.
• Hunter, Linda et Oumarou, Chaibou Elhadji (2001),Aspects of the Aesthetics of Hausa Verbal Art, Cologne: Rüdiger Kőpper Verlag.
• Minnis, A. J, “The Influence of Academic Prologues on the Prologues and Literary Attitudes of Late Medieval English Writers,” in Medieval Studies, Xliii (1981): 342-383.
• Minnis, A. J.Medieval Theory of Authorship: Scholastic Literary Attitudes in the Late Middle Ages. London: Scolar Press, 1984.
• Ngal, M. a. M, “Literary Creation in Oral Civilization.” InNew Literary History. Vol.8. No. 3 (Springs 1977): 335-344.
• Nichols, Stephen G., “A Poetics of Historicism? Recent Trends in Medieval Literary Study,” inMedievalia et Humanistica8 (1977): 77-102.
• Thomas, Rosalind.Literacy and Orality in Ancient Greece. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992.

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